Contour, the Singapore-based global trade finance network, has today announced its partnership with WAVE BL, a leading blockchain-based digital courier platform that mirrors the traditional process for transferring original paper documents⁠ electronically. The news follows as part of Contour’s ongoing expansion of integration partners to maximize the accessibility of digital trade finance solutions.

WAVE BL’s solution enables instant, encrypted, and authenticated transfer of unique digital documents, streamlining an otherwise cumbersome, manual process without compromising security. Users retain exclusive and full control over their data, account access, and account identity, combining the trustworthiness of traditional paper documentation with the efficiency of a digital solution.

Contour’s non-partisan network, powered by R3’s Corda blockchain technology, allows all banks, financial institutions, and corporates to improve access, communication, and transparency when conducting trade finance agreements.

Digitization is introducing massive efficiency gains within the trade finance industry. WAVE BL ensures document transfers are impossible to falsify, forge, or lose while saving up to weeks per transfer. Contour’s network reduces the processing time of LC presentation by up to 90%. This, combined with increased transparency for banks and corporates, enables transactions to be made with greater confidence.

Carl Wegner, CEO at Contour, said: “Traditional paper-based processes are holding back the trade finance industry, as well inhibiting the development of global trade as a whole. However, there’s no single path to digitizing trade finance – a whole new ecosystem is required and can only be achieved through collaboration between banks, corporates, and technology providers. That’s what our partnership with WAVE BL seeks to achieve. Together, we’re able to bring the benefits of digital transformation to a growing number of industries while also increasing the accessibility of our network to more users.“

Gadi Ruschin, CEO at WAVE BL, said: “We are happy to bring world-leading carriers such as ZIM and MSC and international companies such as OEC Group and Interglobo Group into Contour’s network. Our service, enhanced through being a part of Contour’s network, helps bring international trade into the 21st Century – documents that once took weeks to arrive can be delivered nearly instantly with much greater security. Accelerating these otherwise archaic processes is a key milestone towards realizing our vision of a unified global network of B2B documentation exchange.”