Michael Vrontamitis, Finastra & Joshua Kroeker, Contour at Sibos 2022

From Sibos 2022, we sat down with Michael Vrontamitis, the Lead Industry Principal of Lending Business at Finastra, and Joshua Kroeker, the CPO of Contour, to talk about the companies’ recent partnership and the emergence of digital trade finance.

“Decentralised networks have allowed us to build a common network for the first time,” explains Kroeker. “Every bank, every corporate, can choose where their data is – they can host it, they can control, it can be in a country of their choice to meet their regulatory obligations – and you don’t have all that data sitting in one place.”

Digitising trade finance represents a cost-effective and transparent interface for banks and corporates to seamlessly record their transactions and collaborate with peers and clients in a single space.

“Financial institutions are increasingly embracing the ecosystem that is around them,” said Vrontamitis. “We see a key role enabling our clients to embrace that ecosystem, whether that’s embedding finance, whether that connecting to digital platforms like Contour, for us that is how we facilitate the outcomes for our clients so that they are faster, cheaper, and can compete.”