"Corporates want to have multi-bank platforms," says CEO of Globaltrade Corporation (GTC), Jacob Katsman, who is now able to claim that 25 banks are using the Canadian company's @GlobalTrade platform technology, which includes letter of credit (L/C) applications. Katsman is also keen to stress that GTC's recently announced deal with Bayerische Hypo-und Vereinsbank AG (HVB) is a "fully-fledged partnership" between the company and the German bank. (DC World News, 8 September 2006).
Customer-Led Development
The platform now adopted by HVB is the result of six years work at GTC, the last three of which have involved the company working in close cooperation with the German bank to develop trade applications on the platform based on requirements of HVB and its corporate clients. "Multinationals such as DaimlerChrysler, Airbus parent EADS, MAN, Siemens and big trading companies such as Bunge, Glencore, Trafigura, are all dealing with multiple banks," explains Katsman, who maintains that large companies such as these want to be able to see all of their electronic transactions in one place rather than have to go onto several different proprietary systems to gather a complete picture of their transactions.
Increased Visibility
Being able to see all required transactions in one place can also have cost implications, since the corporate client should only be paying, directly or indirectly, for a connection to one platform rather than for connections to several different platforms. A multi-bank platform may not be required for smaller or less complex companies that may be well served by proprietary bank front end systems but, according to Katsman, once a corporate is dealing with more than two or three banks, the case for a multiple bank platform becomes much more compelling. "We have 22 banks using our software via the HVB @GlobalTrade Guarantee Platform and three banks using our eLC Delivery system," says Katsman, who says the partnership has already won some significant customers.
Future Prospects
"We have one multinational signed up to a guarantee platform and another signed up to the Export L/C and Documentary Collections platform," says Katsman who told DC World News that he hoped to be able to reveal the names of some very big corporates signing up to GTC's products in the near future. This he hopes will stimulate significant interest amongst banks and corporates in the company's multi-bank platform and its trade finance applications. As well as export and import L/Cs, there are @GlobalTrade applications for guarantee issuance, documentary collection, payables and receivables financing. The platform is also designed to collaborate with carriers, freight forwarding and insurance companies.
This article represents the views of the author and not necessarily those of the ICC or any of the other partners in DC-PRO.
[OCTOBER 2006 DC-PRO]