IBM Successfully Tests ‘Batavia’ Its Blockchain-based Trade Finance Platform
Tech giant IBM is seen aggressively pursuing different blockchain-based projects and making its place in the blockchain space. Last week, IBM signed a deal with Insurance Broker Marsh for developing a blockchain-based verification platform for the insurance sector.
On April 19, the company also announced that it has successfully tested the first set of live transactions for Batavia - its Blockchain-based trade finance platform. The Batavia platform by IBM is developed to streamline the supply-chain process while tracking or tracing key events and also making use of IoT devices to log details regarding the condition and location of goods in transit.
The Batavia platform is developed by IBM while working in coordination with several other financial institutions like CommerzeBank, CiaxaBank, Bank of Montreal (BMO) and Erste Group.
While first introducing the Batavia platform back in 2017, Marie Wieck, a general manager at IBM Blockchain said: “Trade finance is a perfect use case because there are so many participants in a trade ecosystem especially when you talk of global trade.”
During the latest press release, IBM confirmed that the Batavia platform could also execute smart payments in addition to successfully testing the close trade agreements. The company said that smart payments “can be automatically triggered by specified events in the supply chain and recorded in the blockchain.”
Niko Giesbert of Commerzbank, a German financial services company, said: “the joint successful live transaction demonstrates the potential of such a platform. Trade data and smart payment, which is automatically triggered by the transport data, form an important basis for risk management and financing instruments and add value to every supply chain.”
The use of blockchain for supply-chain has increased at an unprecedented rate in comparison to other business areas as trails involving the distributed ledger technology are just skyrocketing. However, IBM is not the only company working in the trade finance sector. India’s second largest financial bank, ICICI has now over 250 corporate clients signing to its own customized blockchain solution for domestic and international fund transfers.
Blockchain technology has allowed for a smooth transition for the trade-finance sector to move away from paper-based records. The blockchain technology offers better immutability and secure storage of records over the existing traditional methods.
Giesbert said that Batavia’s next step will be to “enter a new phase focused on the building out of a production-ready solution. This may include joining forces with fintechs, financial institutions or other innovation leaders in the market.”