EMEA FINANCE
They also have some forward-looking regulators in the trade and finance sector, who not only understand the challenges, but are backed up by a robust legal system and a willingness to enforce rules. The MENA could be poised to leap forward into trade digitisation It makes the MENA region ideally placed to take advantage of the benefits of digitising trade transactions and documentation, removing all the very costly disadvantages of using slow and insecure paper-based processes. They have the opportunity to leapfrog ahead of many other regions where natural conservatism and lack of consensus often mean processing of trade documents takes days or weeks instead of the few hours now possible. Not only do paper processes open up all kinds of problems in relation to fraud and accuracy, they are easily lost and very expensive to administer.
The enthusiasm for digitisation is evident at major events
Organisations are digitising on a caseby-case basis
The enthusiasm for trade digitisation is evident at big gatherings such as GTR MENA Trade & Export Finance Week in Dubai, which is a major event attended by 600 delegates from 30 countries, including many key people from corporates and banks. The energy flowing around the whole digitisation question is unmistakeable when significant market players get together.
Many of the MENA region’s decisionmakers in international trade have started to adopt digital platforms to benefit from huge gains in speed, security and efficiency. SABB (Saudi British Bank), for example is now bringing electronic trade document solutions to corporate clients, slashing transaction times and delivering major efficiency gains to all parties.
Hardly surprising when growing wealth has generated such a surge of import activity that covers everything from materials for massive infrastructure projects to every kind of manufactured product, including luxury goods and vehicles.
SABB’s move to a digital platform last year was a first for trade digitisation in the Kingdom and remains a significant cornerstone of what will be a much larger structure, since the bank is pre-eminent in the country’s trade finance. In fact, all the banks in the MENA area are increasingly adopting an open-minded approach to the digitisation of trade finance.
That is not to say this a headlong rush. The move to digitisation is being taken step by step with full evaluation of each use case.
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