As the trade finance industry collectively progresses to address challenges around digital fragmentation and isolation, adoption of standard solutions and well-established legal frameworks along with technology as an enabler will play critical roles in truly digitalising trade.

Pressure on margins from increased competition and compliance requirements is forcing the industry to recalibrate its trade finance offerings. While institutions know that trade digitalisation is important for the future of the business, success relies heavily on deeper coordination and collaboration between the myriad participants in the trade finance ecosystem and technology enablers

Global and regional cash management banks across Asia-Pacific are making substantial investments in digital initiatives to enhance the overall transaction experience of their clients.

Investments and interest in distributed ledger technology have been rising rapidly as new use cases emerge to harness its potential. The technology is nonetheless still at an early stage with many hurdles to cross, possibly five to seven years away from mainstream adoption.

New proofs of concepts have emerged in blockchain as the industry tackles various impediments to its successful adoption. The technology initiatives would need to be complemented with stronger collaborative efforts and interoperability for future growth.

It is not often that a technology comes along that forces a rethink of traditional business models. Blockchain, a technology that originated from an anti-establishment alternative to fiat currencies, is fast finding applications in a myriad of financial use cases

Banks are integrating new technologies into their core businesses to improve their digital banking presence and speed-to-deliver

As trials move into actual implementations, global financial markets and monetary systems will be disrupted and transformed.

Central banks worldwide increasingly recognise the benefits of wholesale central bank digital currencies (wCBDCs) in making remittances and other cross-border transactions cheaper, faster and safer. Pilot projects set in motion seek to identify opportunities and risks as well as explore the possibility of having shared infrastructure to automate cross-border payments, foreign exchange and settlements.

By combing various technologies such as artificial intelligence, big data, 5G, and internet of things, edge computing is a viable solution to issues such as data latency, waste of bandwidth and possible security breaches.