Trade Insights: The next era of international trade transactions

Trade Insights: The next era of international trade transactions

By making vital progress in the transformation of trade and payments, we’re part of the drive to make it easier than ever for businesses to import or export. 

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Digitalisation is transforming the trading process for businesses


At a glance:

  • Historically, the end-to-end international transaction – from the issuance of trade documents, to the shipping and delivery of goods, through to invoicing and payment – could be long, cumbersome and expensive.
  • Paper-based trade documents place a significant burden on the environment and could take days – or even weeks – to arrive, while international payments could get caught in bottlenecks and be subject to friction and delay. 
  • Innovation in paperless trade is already cutting down the trade process by weeks. The implementation of major technical milestones in the payments landscape, such as the adoption of Swift global payment innovation (gpi), the migration to ISO 20022, and other improvements to the cross-border payment journey, are making the payment process faster, more sustainable and more efficient.

Read our full Trade Insights report (PDF, 1.7MB)