TradeSun has struck a partnership with information and analytics provider IHS Markit, as the trade finance technology firm works to strengthen its artificial intelligence (AI)-powered compliance checking solution.

The agreement allows users of TradeSun’s platform to tap into IHS Markit’s financial crime datasets when conducting compliance checks, including vessel tracking for sanctions breaches, container compliance and bill of lading verification, dual use goods and product value screening.

Banks upload data to the TradeSun platform either manually, or through an application programming interface (API), with the AI solution using a combination of optical character recognition and natural language processing technology to read and extract data from a wide variety, type and quality of complex trade documents.

Financial institutions are then able to run compliance checks using various sources, such as IHS Markit, and can verify whether their document meets international rules such as the International Chamber of Commerce’s Uniform Customs and Practice for Documentary Credits (UCP600).

“The platform replaces the manual, siloed, and retrospective approach commonly deployed in trade compliance today. TradeSun also simplifies open integration with other applications that a customer may have previously invested in,” says TradeSun CEO Nigel Hook.

The move will add to – rather than replace – the data already on offer on the TradeSun platform from other providers, including MarineTraffic.

TradeSun first entered the trade finance space in 2018, piloting an AI-based solution to digitise and automate the processing of trade documents with a group of nine banks the following year.   

The number of clients on the platform is now in the “double digits” and includes banks from the Americas, Africa and Asia, with the solution made available to clients under a software-as-a-service (SaaS) model, TradeSun tells GTR.

TradeSun has signalled its intention to expand its footprint in the Asia Pacific region, hiring Colin Camp last month as global chief sales and marketing officer, based out of Hong Kong.