Reimagining Trade Finance: End-to-End Digitisation in the Age of Trade Technology

The world of trade finance is reorganising itself around new supply chain routes, new risk dynamics, and new expectations from banks and corporates. Trade finance, long constrained by paperwork, verification delays, and fragmented systems, now sits at the centre of this transition.  

The fireside dialogue between CredAble and Finastra brought clarity to one truth.  

“The next leap in trade finance will not come from incremental change but from rebuilding processes around data, intelligence, and interoperability.”  

The shift is already underway and it is reshaping how liquidity reaches businesses across every tier of the supply chain. 

The State of Trade Finance Is No Longer Tenable 

The caution around unsecured business loans didn’t come from nowhere. By mid-2024, a Despite decades of innovation, the $2.5 trillion trade finance gap continues to widen, with SMEs bearing most of the exclusion burden. Satyam Agrawal, Global Head of BaaS, SME and Analytics at CredAble, noted that the problem is not capital availability.  

The problem lies in operational models designed for high value, low volume transactions that do not scale for SMEs. over 80% of trade finance still depends on paper documents, creating $6 billion in avoidable costs. 

A single shipment may involve up to 50 documents circulating across 30 or more stakeholders and a traditional letter of credit can take weeks to process. These delays are now incompatible with the speed at which supply chains move. 

The shift from paper to digital platforms is accelerating. For enterprises globally this is a major transition as today we see over 63% of firms adopting digital platforms to facilitate trade transactions.  It is a structural change driven by regulatory reform, digital public infrastructure, and a global push toward real-time visibility. 

Three Focus Areas for Advancing Trade Finance

• Digitisation is becoming the operating baseline. 
  Banks are investing heavily in document intelligence, automated checks, and digital workflows that replace scattered paperwork and manual verification. More than 70 global banks surveyed in industry studies expect digitisation to unlock substantial gains in both standardisation and efficiency. 
• SME inclusion is taking centre stage. 
  Banks are rethinking how to serve high volume, low value transactions. Digital onboarding, alternative data sets, and AI led verification are helping banks cut processing time and cost. These tools are helping SMEs access working capital far more quickly and with higher predictability. 
• Sustainability is becoming a built-in expectation. 
  Banks are preparing for ESG aligned lending architectures that require data verification, taxonomy mapping, and continuous reporting. The rise of sustainability linked trade finance demands digital rails capable of managing transparent and auditable data flows. 

These forces are not parallel trends. They reinforce each other and shape the future direction of trade ecosystems.

Collaboration Is Replacing Fragmented Infrastructure

The discussion highlighted a clear industry shift. Banks are moving away from isolated upgrades toward collaborative platform models.

Anastasia McAlpine, Head of Product Management for Trade and Supply Chain Finance at Finastra, described how interoperability is becoming a competitive advantage. Finastra’s Trade Innovation platform brings core processing strength, while fintechs like CredAble introduce origination, underwriting intelligence, and supplier engagement capabilities. Together they create a unified digital spine that links onboarding, verification, booking, and settlement. 

This model reflects how banks want to operate. They need the agility of modular systems that can integrate ERP feeds, logistics data, tax information, and e-invoicing records in one continuous journey. 

AI and DPI Are Transforming the Foundations of Trade Finance

Artificial Intelligence has become central to how institutions process documents, assess creditworthiness, and detect anomalies. CredAble is deploying AI to streamline supplier onboarding, evaluate cash flow patterns, enhance credit scoring, and automate ERP data mapping. Finastra is incorporating agentic AI to reduce operational workload and strengthen control frameworks. 

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Digital Public Infrastructure is pushing this transformation even further. In India, fifteen million GST registered businesses provide lenders with verified and granular invoice data. With a single consent, banks get visibility into 24 months of transaction history. This creates a new level of underwriting accuracy, fraud detection capability, and continuous monitoring. 

Key impacts include 
• Faster and more reliable onboarding 
• Data driven risk assessment 
• Early warning systems for monitoring credit behaviour 

Deep Tier Financing Is Moving from Concept to Execution

One of the most significant opportunities discussed was deep tier financing. Banks can extend credit beyond the first tier by leveraging anchor corporate performance data and validated transaction flows. This structure allows banks to support smaller suppliers that sit two or three levels below the anchor. It is emerging as a practical solution to narrow the SME financing gap while maintaining risk control. 

Sustainability Is Becoming Embedded in Trade Architecture

Finastra has integrated ESG scoring and sustainability linked pricing into its trade finance workflows. Open APIs connect to global sustainability data sources, enabling banks to classify and verify ESG metrics at the transaction level. Dashboards support regulatory disclosures and help institutions structure sustainable supply chain finance programs with measurable outcomes. This evolution positions sustainability as a foundational aspect of trade finance rather than a standalone initiative. 

The Road Ahead

Trade finance is transitioning from a paper heavy, sequential process to a digital, intelligence driven ecosystem. Banks that adopt modular architectures, integrate AI,  

leverage DPI, and embrace collaboration will be the ones that define the future of global trade flows. As Agrawal concluded, digitisation is not a technology exercise. It is a redesign of how trust, liquidity, and information move across borders. 

Think Working Capital… Think CredAble!