Reducing risk and accelerating trade finance with technology

In Geneva, Trade Treasury Payments (TTP) spoke with Pascal Olivier Marclay, Chief Commercial Officer & Country Manager, Secro, to discuss how technological innovations can support the digitalisation of trade finance.

Marclay explained, “Secro is obviously a tech company. With the particularity that we aim to digitalise trade operations. We use blockchain to tokenise any type of documentary workflow. The particularity of Secro is definitely its tech, which in the end, is the agnostic way to handle through the token something which is very important to the trade business, which is transferable, negotiable, and pledgeable documents.”

For commodity traders based in Geneva, the benefits extend beyond simply removing paper from the system. The city remains a hub for global commodity finance, and the efficiency gains from digitalisation can have a direct impact on reducing risks.

Marclay said, “Geneva is an important place because it gathers the whole ecosystem of commodity trade finance. If you look at the way commodity trade finance has been built, the way it has been financed, you will quickly realise that the hidden risks are operational risk and transactional risk per se. We’ve seen that in the past and we’re here to resolve that.”

Beyond efficiencies, digitalisation can accelerate working capital cycles while improving transparency across a fragmented industry. Collaboration is central to that transformation.

Marclay said, “You have to reason in terms of ecosystem with the variety of actors along the supply chain. To make it work, even so, people have different perspectives and priorities, they have to work together. The technology that we bring in is collaborative. It allows risk management, data management, but it accelerates the cash cycle for traders. On top of the traditional efficiencies, it really brings in the reduction of transaction risk.”

Looking ahead, Marclay sees an inflection point for adoption. Legal and regulatory frameworks have been steadily evolving, and the technology has matured. The challenge is now the industry willingness to act.

Marclay said, “Traders just by themselves won’t do a lot if the financial institutions, the shipping companies, the agents, inspections are not behind it. The value added works only if the whole ecosystem somehow adopts it. Digitalisation has been on the table with banks and traders for almost 20 years. The legal environment has completely changed in three years. The tech has evolved as well. Waiting any longer is a risk for the whole industry.”

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