Today, Crédit Agricole CIB announced it will start conducting blockchain pilots of the Marco Polo trade finance network. The announcement confirms the French bank’s involvement with the Marco Polo network after it quietly appeared on the member list last November. The bank described 2019 as an evaluation period.
“We’re very pleased about this great opportunity with Marco Polo. It is an innovative network that brings together corporates, financial institutions, supply chain stakeholders and software providers, to build the future of international trade and transaction banking,” said Laurent Chenain, Global Head of International Trade & Transaction Banking at Crédit Agricole CIB.
Paris-based Crédit Agricole is the world’s largest cooperative financial institution and offers banking and insurance services through several subsidiaries. In 2019, the bank had total assets of €2.01 trillion ($2.3 trillion).
The bank is also a member of the komgo commodity trade finance network.
Underpinned by R3’s Corda, Marco Polo offers open account trade financing along with the integration with ERP systems. This automatically populates invoices on the blockchain trade finance platform, and the user can also choose which bank to work with.
The platform currently supports Microsoft Dynamic 365, Xero, and Oracle Netsuite. TradeIX is the technology provider for Marco Polo.
“The Marco Polo Network has embarked on an extremely exciting journey and we’re delighted to confirm our relationship with Crédit Agricole CIB in this pilot phase,” said Daniel Cotti, Managing Director, Center of Excellence, Banking & Trade at TradeIX & the Marco Polo Network.
While the platform is live, members are still in the pilot phase. A few months ago, the platform saw a 70-firm trial, which included BMW.
Russia’s Alfa-Bank and Germany’s Commerzbank and LBBW have carried out pilot projects previously. S-Servicepartner and Austria’s Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) also collaborated on a pilot for the Marco Polo platform.
The full list or Marco Polo members include Alfa Bank, Anglo Gulf Trade Bank, Bank of America, Bangkok Bank, Bayern LB, BNP Paribas, BNY Mellon, Bradesco, Commerzbank, Credit Agricole, Danske Bank, DNB, Helaba, ING, Intesa Sanpaolo, LBBW, Mastercard, MUFG, National Bank of Fujairah, National Australia Bank, Natixis, Natwest, OP Financial, Raiffeisen Bank, SMBC, S-Servicepartner, Standard Bank, and Standard Chartered.
