EXCLUSIVE: “At the Nexus of Trade Events” – Matthieu Andrieu, Finastra in ‘The Paytech Magazine’

More than 200 banks currently use Finastra’s Trade Finance platform. Now they can also plug into a vast ecosystem of solutions providers to bring the retail banking experience to corporate customers

Finastra’s motto is ‘innovating finance together’, and at this year’s Sibos that collaborative principle was very much in evidence. The company used the event to launch its Trade Innovation Nexus integration layer, which is designed to streamline and accelerate the adoption
of its Trade Innovation software.

That promotes greater interoperability between core banking systems and third-party platforms and solutions addressing trade and supply chain workflow automation, making integration management easier and more scalable, and enhancing data and business visibility. The Paytech Magazine spoke to Matthieu Andrieu, who oversees those solutions as Head of Corporate Banking, Solutions Consulting Director. Here’s what he had to say about the macro trends currently being seen in global trade and supply chain finance, how the demand for faster and more transparent trade finance is impacting lending, and some of the main challenges facing the marketplace.

Plus, how Finastra’s Trade Innovation Nexus layer can support both users of its corporate banking platform and its partners.

THE PAYTECH MAGAZINE: Can you talk us through some of the macro trends that you’re seeing in global trade and supply chain finance right now?

MATTHIEU ANDRIEU: Documentary trade finance is fully driven by the regulation. And we’ve seen lots of changes recently. Countries such as France, Germany, the US, plus some countries in the Middle East, like Abu Dhabi and Southeast Asia, have newly confirmed that the electronic document, or e-document, is of equal value to the physical document.

There is a shift in business from manual processing of a paper-based document to the electronic document. And it has not only had an impact on the technology, but also on thetarget operating model for most of the banks worldwide. Some parts of the world, like Africa and South America, are not as engaged as other countries, but it will come sooner or later there, too.

TPM: How is the demand for faster, more transparent trade finance impacting lending practices?

MA: Most of the banks, when they consider trade finance or working capital, are thinking about their operational model – the automation of the processing in their back-office systems. This is not the place where the user experience has been enhanced, as it has in retail banking. So, for instance, mobile banking is not something that has been a key differentiator for the bank when it comes to trade finance or corporate lending.

“Nexus will be used by the banks on top of our corporate banking platform to connect, transact, maintain and build innovative solutions… It’s dedicated to finance; it’s driven by business – and we do it together”

However, some banks do want to invest in this space, and they want to dramatically change the customer journey. So, we’ve seen demand for chatbots and for generative artificial intelligence, but also for mobile banking, for those kinds of businesses.

TPM: Talk us through some of the key challenges for banks and their partners. Specifically, what does your Trade Innovation platform already have in place and how does that help the banks and partners?

MA: We have more than 200 banks using our trade finance platform, which is called Trade Innovation, and we are engaged daily with those banks.

There are two main challenges that they are facing. One is to follow the regulation and continuously adopt the best practice. For instance, every year you have a new Swift release – with the latest expected in November this year – and most of the customers need to migrate from the older MT to the newer MX messaging standards. So, that’s one challenge for the banks, to continuously be up to date, according to those standards.

The other challenge, of course, is in the definition of an ecosystem. In the past, most of the banks trusted one vendor to be their solution provider. Nowadays, the banks need to deal with a large ecosystem, and so the importance of OpenAPI is at the top of their priorities.

TPM: In terms of your product roadmap and innovation, name some of the key milestones or products that you’re looking to use to transform the industry over the next few years.

MA: Being a global player, we are seeing different milestones in Asia compared to Europe or the US. But something which is a fundamental trend is Cloud adoption. We’ve seen most of the banks, especially in Western countries, asking for Cloud-based solutions. And this is the first step towards moving to managed services.

So, there’s a tremendous opportunity for a software provider like Finastra to become a solutions provider and to manage, maintain and upgrade all those solutions. That’s a different business model, and that’s also a different partnership that we need to agree with the bank. That’s a fundamental trend in corporate banking.

TPM: Talk us through what the new Nexus integration layer can do.

MA: Innovating finance together is our mantra, and so Nexus will be used by the banks on top of our corporate banking platform to connect, transact, maintain and build innovative solutions They can use blockchain or AI, machine learning, Cloud-based solutions, or on-premise solutions. This will easily open the door for the banks to launch new products, for instance, but also to adopt a new target operating model to engage with a new fintech company from anywhere in the world.

It’s not limited to specific countries; it’s a global solution. It’s dedicated to finance; it’s driven by business – and we do it together. It’s a three-party agreement between the bank, us at Finastra, and the fintech partners that exist all over the world.

This article was published in The Paytech Magazine Issue #17, Page 15-16