Trade finance becomes the reality for traditional banking

Bank of America Merrill Lynch recently confirmed the application of the block chain-based technology to trade finance transactions. This is a clear indication from the traditional banking sector of their support for the disruptive technology. The bitcoin’s underlying technology finally is seeing practical use.

The traditional trade finance relies on heavily manual and paper-based processes. The block-chain is able to achieve cost-cutting through replacing printed paper and could provide transparent cyber security where everyone can easily track where the money came from and who it was transferred to.  This is very attractive to bank who plays as the intermediary role to mitigate the trust issue.  Then, the Zero cost and anti-counterfeit function is another merit of the block chain technology. Digital currency such as bitcoin is the prefect asset for the internet age, it can be set to any corner of the world at nearly zero cost and almost impossible for counterfeit; Digital currency has been experimentally traded as a substitute for high volatility currency such as the currency of Argentina.

The trend of fintech + traditional bank collaboration is inevitable, and it will bring benefits to consumers and financial system. There is really no point for banks to reinvent what has been developed by fintech out there. On the other hand fintech, Fintech need access to banking.