Türk Ekonomi Bankası (TEB) has become the 16th banking group worldwide, and the fifth in the Emea region, to go live with the bank payment obligation (BPO), GTR can exclusively reveal.

The four-corner transaction sees TEB issuing the BPO on the import side, acting as obligor bank for Köksan, a Turkish importer of petrochemicals. The exporter in the trasaction is Thai company PTT Polymer Marketing, a producer of oil and petrochemical products, with Bangkok Bank acting as its bank.

Senior trade manager at TEB, Figen Yumrukcaglar, who was instrumental in agreeing the transaction, tells GTR it helps secure trade for Köksan worth €616,000.

According to Yumrukcaglar, the transaction demonstrates TEB’s (a BNP Paribas joint-venture in Turkey) ability to continue to offer the BPO as an electronic trade settlement instrument to clients.

“After having successfully tested the BPO through Swift’s trade services utility (TSU) platform in June this year, TEB’s GTS team was able to accelerate promotion of the product, especially among the bank’s major trade clients,” says Yumrukcaglar.

As 2015 approaches, global head of corporate and supply chain markets at Swift, André Casterman, sees a growing demand for BPO in Emea. “I predict that the number of live BPO banks in Emea will surpass those in Asia by the end of 2015,” he tells GTR.

“We now have five banking groups in Emea live with the BPO: UniCredit, Commerzbank, BNP Paribas, TEB and Isbank, whereas there are 11 live banking groups in Asia Pacific and Japan.”