Yes Bank, India’s fourth-largest private sector bank, has partnered with Bolero International to digitise export documents including the letter of credit.

The partnership sees Yes Bank become the first Indian bank to use Bolero’s e-presentation solution, involving the end-to-end electronic presentation of export documents.

The bank has already completed its first digital transaction with Welspun Global Brands, part of the US$2.3bn Welspun Group, India’s largest exporter of home textile products. It covered an export by the company from India to the US. Bolero’s solution, the bank says, replaced the need to exchange physical documentation, reducing turn-around time from 10 days to “real-time” for all parties involved.

“With the introduction of electronic presentation of documents under collections and letter of credit, we aim to not only transform work flows at the bank’s level but also effect significant manpower and turn-around-time reductions for all partners involved. We will soon extend this service to all our clients involved in cross-border trade,” says Ajay Rajan, global head transaction of banking sales at Yes Bank.

Bolero is an open platform designed to enable paperless trading between buyers, sellers, logistics, banks, agencies and regulatory authorities anywhere in the world. Gary Cutress, sales director at Bolero, tells GTR that there are currently around 70 banks worldwide using Bolero’s e-presentation solution to digitise the presentation of export documents. He adds that while global banks including HSBC have previously used the platform for transactions out of India, this is the first time an Indian bank has done so.