Finastra has launched a supply chain finance platform for banks, adding a front end for payables and receivables finance and upgrading capabilities it currently offers through Trade Innovation, its existing trade finance software.
An unnamed bank is piloting the new platform and is expected to go live with both products by November, GTR can reveal.
Banks can use Finastra Supply Chain Finance to bring buyers and suppliers onto financing programmes, receive invoice data from buyers’ and sellers’ systems, process transactions and manage the resulting finance.
Depending on how a bank sets up a programme, suppliers can choose which invoices to finance or have them financed automatically. The platform also includes tools for distributing financed assets to other investors.
Finastra already had a supply chain finance module within Trade Innovation, Vinay Mendonca, the company’s head of product for trade, supply chain finance and corporate channels, told GTR at Sibos on September 28.
“What we’ve now launched is basically a modern front-end platform with end-to-end STP on our upgraded back-end module,” he said.
According to Mendonca, banks have asked to manage supply chain finance alongside their existing traditional trade products.
Using separate systems means building connections to other bank systems twice and makes it harder to see how credit limits are being used across products, he said. “You don’t get a holistic view.”
Trade Innovation Nexus, an API-based integration layer Finastra introduced last year, connects Trade Innovation with banks’ other systems and outside providers.
Finastra Supply Chain Finance can use it to draw invoice data from corporate clients’ ERP software. It can also work with Finastra’s Loan IQ loan management system.
Risk distribution is built into the payables and receivables workflows, allowing banks to pass exposure to other investors on a funded or unfunded basis. Mendonca argued this could help banks maintain capacity to finance growing programmes.
Finastra lists automated pricing, limit management and reconciliation among the distribution tools. The company said the platform also includes AI-enabled fraud detection, compliance screening and eligibility monitoring, which will be available for the pilot client.
Future releases are planned to add purchase order, integrating pre- and post-shipment, inventory and distributor finance.
Finastra hopes the broader offering will appeal to both existing clients and banks using other systems, Mendonca said.
