International Banks Launch New Supply Chain Solution
A new model for a blockchain-enabled supply chain finance called ‘Trado’ has been released by a consortium of banks, fintech startups, an NGO and a research institution.
The consortium is headed by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) and the consortium also includes French bank BNP Paribas, UK bank Barclays, Dutch bank Rabobank, UK retailer Sainsbury’s, and UK bank Standard Chartered.
The grouping also includes tech companies such as Provenance, Halotrade and Meridia, and IDH, along with a sustainability NGO.
The group has reportedly been exploring new supply chain finance structures with specific regards to blockchain.
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With a goal to remodel the supply chain, the consortium has already tested a pilot which saw the usage of blockchain technology track tea from farmers in Malawi being sold to Unilever and financed by BNP Baribas.
The pilot was completed with an Ethereum-based blockchain solution developed by Provenance.
It also saw Meridia, a data collection company, collect a range of data on the individual smallholder farmers supplying the tea, all verified by IDH.
Thomas Verhagen, Senior Programme Manager at CISL, said: “The idea was not to keep this knowledge but to share it in such a way that there is no IP protection, other than people need to attribute it.
“You can change it and use it for commercial purposes. That helped us with the consortium, because everybody knows they can use everything. Secondly, it will hopefully help for a larger uptake of the Trado model.”
