Toronto-headquartered tech provider Surecomp has announced a collaboration with Visa, enabling banks to make trade finance-related fund transfers using the card giant’s cross-border payments network. 

Surecomp says the partnership will allow banks to use Rivo – its trade finance platform that uses APIs to connect corporates, banks, insurers and shipping companies – in tandem with Visa B2B Connect. 

For an importer’s bank making a payment associated with a trade finance instrument such as a letter of credit, guarantee or documentary collection, the link-up gives the option of paying the exporter’s bank or the exporter themselves directly via Visa. 

The result is “a more streamlined process for managing trade finance transactions and associated payments” that also improves transparency and predictability, Surecomp says. 

Enno-Burghard Weitzel, the company’s chief solutions officer, says the partnership gives importers’ banks more ways to make payments when due, particularly useful for tier-two or tier-three lenders operating in countries where correspondent banking networks have shrunk dramatically in recent years. 

“In the corporate space, where a bank will have a collection request from their exporter customer, they will need to receive the funds from an importer which could be anywhere in the world,” he tells GTR. 

“Sometimes, in some countries, the only option is to pay through the one correspondent bank that is left after global de-risking. We are adding another option for these banks… and this is the key value proposition we’re bringing.” 

Ben Ellis, Visa B2B Connect’s global head, says: “We are working continuously to modernise cross-border payments, to deliver the efficiency and transparency that is so critical for financial institutions and their clients around the world.”