Nordea expands use of Bolero for multi-banking

Regardless of the news posted on Bolero, its changing web page quotes are staggering. " Export process add 9% to the cost of products on average."  "For a $5bn company there is $200m worth of efficiency gains." "$38bn in duty refunds are left unclaimed each year by US importers." "The cost of processing a purchase order (paper) $50 internet ($1)."

If Bolero is not an everyday  name, one suspects it plays not under the radar but out in the cosmos unless you are playing in the very big corporate game. The Bolero multi-bank service automates the end-to-end lifecycle of the Letter of Credit and Guarantee instruments for both importers and exporters removing substantially the costs complexity, discrepancies and time delays associated with the traditional paper based or partially electronic processes.

Bolero uniquely offers a multi-bank trade finance solution for the corporate customer whilst at the same time providing a multi-corporate trade finance channel for the bank, enabling true collaboration and eliminating the need for the corporate to maintain numerous customer specific interfaces or manual processes.

Claus Asbjørn Stehr, Head of Trade and Project Finance at Nordea says: "We are now supporting the Bolero multi-bank channel for a number of our corporate customers and see the value provided by multi-banking solutions. There is no doubt that the market for multi-banking solutions is growing."

By automating the Trade Finance Process including the electronic channel to its multiple banking partners, a corporate can have the benefit of a risk mitigation instrument without the majority of costs and issues traditionally associated with the Letter of Credit.

"This allows a corporate to reduce time, cost and complexity providing visibility and certainty, eliminating errors and allowing it to manage working capital more effectively. For a bank such as Nordea, this provides a multi-bank channel to complement its existing trade finance services in support of rapidly growing market demand."

While considerable effort has been spent on optimising the physical supply chain, it’s only been in recent years that much attention was paid to creating efficiencies in the financial supply chain.

Bolero was founded by SWIFT, and the Through Transport Club (TT Club)in 1998. In 2000 additional capital was invested in Bolero by Apax Partners and Baring Private Equity Partners.  A Swiss Ltd company, Palio, domiciled in Zurich, is also a player with international investments in private and public equity, convertibles and high yield debt, focusing on the opportunities for capital appreciation created by the rapid convergence of technology, communication and commerce.

The cross-industry ownership provides the company with a unique neutral position which sets it apart from proprietary initiatives which favour the interests of a specific company, market or country.

Among its wickedly catholic collection of board directors is a former Governor of London Business School, Trustee of the British Museum and chairman of Oxford's Ashmolean Museum; an honours degree pure mathematician with 25 years in the software industry; a development engineer on digital automation and computerised motion control systems; and an Aberdeen University graduate with a degree in English.

Not surprisingly, the financial supply chain offers significant potential for generating bottom-line improvements and creating competitive advantage. According to Killen Associates, “a typical $1bn company spends approximately $27m annually for unnecessary working capital and inefficient processing functions because they lack visibility into the Financial Supply Chain and receivables.”

Bolero is a neutral, third-party facilitator of paperless trading between buyers, sellers, logistics players, banks, agencies, and regulatory authorities anywhere in the world. Some of its users include ABN AMRO, Bank of America, HSBC, ING, and the Royal Bank of Scotland.

Bolero also pays credit to the automation line up of partners described as credits systems integrators, technology alliance partners, solution alliance partners and community enablement alliance partners  up of which there are interestingly 13 at the table.

    * Clave Link
    * Computer Science Corporation
    * Core Solutions
    * CSI Complex Systems Inc - BankTrade
    * DOS Dialog Orientierte Software GmbH
    * NTT DATA Getronics Corporation
    * Misys International Banking Systems
    * Silicon Crafts Pty Ltd (Ozdocs)
    * Surecomp
    * Toyo Business Engineering
    * TradeLink
    * TRADEPAQ Corporation
    * XRT

Webs: http://www.bolero.net/
http://www.boleroassociation.org/third_parties.htm   
Bolero in 2001 context: http://tinyurl.com/3mrak2