26 March 2020 (London / Dublin) Tech Mahindra Ltd, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting, business reengineering services and solutions, recently became the first Indian corporate to leverage the Marco Polo Network and Platform for international trade finance. The transactions were facilitated by DBS Bank which acted as Tech Mahindra’s leading trade bank.
As part of the tripartite partnership, a series of digitised trade finance transactions were completed utilising the Marco Polo Receivables Discounting module. Receivables Discounting, also known as Factoring, is a form of Receivables Purchase that allows companies to optimise their working capital, improve liquidity and mitigate credit risk. Available for production use on the Marco Polo Platform, the solution has been successfully implemented as part of the largest Blockchain Open Trade Finance Trial in December 2019.
Some of the advantages of the Marco Polo Platform include the digitisation of documentation, resulting in the significant reduction of manual documentation and time required for the entire transaction cycle. Most importantly, compared to current platforms, both organisations experience faster reconciliation and ambiguity resolution due to the streamlined and simplified processes facilitated by Marco Polo.
With more than 30 participants now spanning across six continents, Marco Polo is the largest and fastest-growing trade finance network based on a distributed architecture that allows members to offer and access a complete suite of trade and working capital solutions in a collaborative trade ecosystem.
Rajesh Dhuddu, Global Head of Blockchain, Tech Mahindra
“Tech Mahindra will collaborate with DBS to move its Receivables Financing operations on the Marco Polo network. This move is in line with the general shift towards Open Accounts Trade and by extension to integrated Supply Chain Finance solutions. The move will help Tech Mahindra to achieve process optimization for this activity as a result of reduced handling of physical documents, reduced reconciliation and resultant dispute reduction.
As a part of our TechMNxt charter, we are focused on leveraging next generation’s technologies to deliver an enhanced experience to our customers globally”
Sriram Muthukrishnan, Group Head of Trade Product Management, DBS Bank
“Technology plays a monumental role in breaking down barriers in cross-border trade and will remain key in facilitating the continued growth of international trade and businesses. This joint initiative with Marco Polo and Tech Mahindra complements DBS’ efforts to help our clients unlock greater efficiencies through the digitalisation of often manual and complex trade finance processes.
We continue to explore and support new solutions and partnerships with like-minded partners across geographies and sectors, to promote the adoption of technology within the trade ecosystem. The end goal is to provide a seamless end-to-end trade financing experience for our customers.”
Rob Barnes, CEO, Marco Polo Network (formerly known as TradeIX)
“We are in extremely difficult and challenging times now, with facilitating trade and minimizing supply chain disruptions becoming even more important now than ever.
With the Receivable Discounting module already in production on the Marco Polo Platform, we are now able to make it easier for trading partners like Tech Mahindra to transact more securely, easily, and cost-efficiently. Asia serves as a key area of growth for the Marco Polo Network. This is a great achievement with two leading institutions with more collaborations planned in the near future.
