R3 Corda’s Marco Polo Blockchain Welcomes a Logistics Company to the Trade Finance Platform

A third party joins R3 Corda’s Marco Polo blockchain to add data and confirm the payment obligations between Voith and KSB SE – LBBW and Commerzbank facilitated the trade.

Global trade finance is hampered by the cumbersome cross-border transactional banking arrangements.

Goods and data get up stuck in silos enhanced by the slow nature of information being verified and confirmed – taking weeks or months to finally get the goods. Marco Polo, a trade finance blockchain powered by R3 Corda, changed the game by allowing real time processing information across businesses.

The business is now going one step higher!

In March BEG reported two companies – Voith, a heavy duty parts manufacturer and KSB SE, a pump and valve manufacturer – used the system to complete a transaction that saw the former track special hydraulic couplings parts’ delivery to Taiwan from Germany.

The blockchain has now welcomed a third party to the blockchain – Logwin AG, a logistics provider.

“Milestone in the decentralized trade finance industry”

The logistics provider acted as a third party to the transaction adding data and confirming the payment obligations. The transaction which was facilitated by the LBBW and Commerzbank becomes the first of ‘hopefully’ many transactions across global companies.

Gerald Böhm, head of guarantees and trade finance at Voith is delighted with the “milestone” of “incorporating Logwin AG into the digital process chain – directly, and in real time. He further said,

“For the first time, we have processed the purchase and delivery of special hydraulic couplings from Germany to Taiwan using blockchain technology. We executed this transaction with KSB, the leading pump and valve manufacturer, via the Marco Polo network.”

The Head of International Trade and Payment Solutions at LBBW, Matthias Heuser commented,

“Now, an independent third party – in our case the logistics provider – is able to trigger a payment obligation in favor of the supplier. This significantly enhances the value of the payment commitment.”

Earlier in May, the blockchain development team announced a partnership with one of Brazil’s largest bank, Bradesco.