Trade messaging available for corporate to bank

Vendors step up to the challenge as MT 798 Trade Envelope message becomes available for corporate to bank

The MT 798 Trade Envelope message is now available for trade messaging between corporates and banks. The Trade Envelope can be used in SCORE for Import Letter of Credit, Export Letter of Credit and Guarantee/Standby Letter of Credit flows. Banks, corporates and vendors have all been involved in the development process. Many corporates connected to SWIFT see trade as a natural extension to their current treasury and cash management communication with their banks.

"National multi-bank standards for electronic trade communication between corporates and their banks are not new. However, multinational companies need an international standard in order to deal with their banks worldwide. SWIFT accepted the challenge, developed a solution within a short timeframe, and German banks have actively supported this development. The German banking community is strongly convinced that the SWIFT MT 798 Trade Envelope will become not just a trade standard, but THE global trade standard,” says Roland Hasenaecker, Chairman of the German SWIFT Working Group for Trade Finance.

Four vendors are enabling the MT 798 Trade Envelope in their Trade systems, for banks and/or corporates. Banks are working on their in-house systems or looking to vendors for help with implementation. Misys, Viveo, GTC and China Systems have all stepped up to meet the implementation challenge:

Olivier Berthier, Solutions Director, Transaction Banking, Misys, comments: “Extending SCORE to include the MT 798 is an important innovation and a key technical component to address banks’ and corporates’ demands. Our support is two-fold: First, we have enhanced Misys Trade Portal for Multi-Bank service into a standards-based, bank-friendly multi-bank solution, available now. Secondly, we are helping banks enable the MT 798 within our SWIFTReady Trade Finance solution, Misys Trade Innovation, so they can exchange messages from within their back-offices.”

Robert de Picciotto, CEO, Viveo Trade & Finance SA adds: “VIVEO Trade & Finance is participating in the SCORE extension, by adding the MT 798 Trade Envelope between corporates and banks to its offering. VIVEO Trade & Finance already manages all the SWIFT trade messages bank to bank (complete series category 4 & 7), through Fintrade Bank - this is a front to back office solution. We are now enabling SWIFT capability for commodity traders by means of the MT 798 inside Fintrade. Communication between the two communities thus becomes a reality.”

Nick Pachnev, the Chief Technology Officer at GlobalTrade Corporation, writes: “Corporates using @GlobalTrade solutions are very enthusiastic about the new SWIFT messages. They see SWIFT as the only global network that offers corporates multi-bank connectivity for cash management, letter of credit, guarantee and supply chain finance transactions through a single interface. GlobalTrade Corporation is incorporating the new messages into its systems and plants to pilot them with several corporates and banks in Europe and the Middle East in the first half of 2009.”

Joel Schrevens, Solutions Director, China Systems Corporation reports: "China Systems is enhancing its STP engine to support the MT 798 in corporate to bank/bank to corporate messaging flows. This STP engine already provides support for FIN and XML messaging (including the Trade Services Utility) and provides flexibility for future extension of message components. The generic STP component can be deployed both on the corporate side (Customer Enterprise) and on the bank side (Eximbills Enterprise)."

SWIFT expects to see live usage during the first half of 2009. Jackie Keogh, Head of Global Transaction Banks and Supply Chain at SWIFT comments: “We were very pleased that the SWIFT Board approved the extension of Trade messaging to the corporate to bank environment mid 2008. This is in direct response to our customers’ demands as banks wish to offer their corporate customers a multi-bank, multi-business solution. Exchanging trade data over SWIFT complements the cash and treasury and cash management offering already in place. We look forward to seeing strong usage of the Trade Envelope.”