UniCredit today announced the successful completion of its first international transaction via blockchain-based trading platform we.trade.
The first of its kind in the German market, the transaction involved one of UniCredit's corporate clients, navabi GmbH, an internationally active plus size online retailer, using the platform to place an order with a Spanish supplier.
On the Spanish side, Banco Santander SA enabled a smooth transaction.
Many banks and companies are looking for a more efficient and cost-effective way to trade internationally. Being the sole bank in Italy to offer we.trade, UniCredit provides small and medium-sized enterprises access to an extremely simple application for the efficient, cost-effective and secure execution of national and international trading transactions.
Based on blockchain technology, we.trade maps the entire transaction process (end-to-end) and leverages so-called 'Smart Contracts'. These can be used, for example, to automatically activate payments as soon as previously defined conditions, such as the dispatch of goods, have been fulfilled. This makes transactions considerably faster and more transparent as well as easier and safer, especially with new trading partners.
Gianfranco Bisagni, UniCredit's Co-Head of Corporate and Investment Banking, said: "we.trade is a success story in bank collaboration and we are delighted to announce our first transaction. Over time, we are confident that the platform will redefine trade relationships between SMEs and increase the connectivity of the financial ecosystem as a whole - something our clients stand to firmly benefit from."
we.trade was established by UniCredit together with other eight European banks, to address the expectations of their customers to make cross-border trade more straightforward.
The platform, which has been running its pilot phase until now, is expected to be available for a broader market, including corporate customers of the affiliated banks, in the next months.
Before the end of the year, we.trade expects to recruit additional banking partners in order to give companies access to international markets that have not yet been covered.