RBS is to support Swift’s Corporate Access (SCA) members using the MT798 messaging standard for corporate-to-bank trade transactions.

RBS has adopted the transaction messaging platform, which will assist corporates that traditionally rely on a range of banks to execute trade transactions, to exchange information with all banks from one single platform.

Commenting on the news, Ray Zabarte, interim head of trade, global transaction services, RBS, says to GTR: “Swift corporate members from all industry sectors make up a significant part of RBS’s client base across the bank’s international country network.”

“If clients decide they want to adopt this global standard for initiating trade, we will be able to support them. The MT798 will enable clients to manage all their trade transactions digitally and in one place,” he adds.

The MT798, via Swift’s financial information service, enables clients to generate a range of message types used for trade – to initiate import letters of credit, standby letters of credit and guarantees, or to receive export letters of credit. It will support 41 different MT798 message types.

“The MT798 is a great example of how banks, corporates and Swift are working together to provide bank-agnostic solutions. We are delighted to bring this new capability to RBS customers with all the benefits it brings to both them and us,” says Alastair Brown, head of eChannels at RBS global transaction services.

Andre Casterman, head of corporate and supply chain markets at Swift, adds: “We are delighted about RBS’s decision to adopt Swift’s’s trade standards. This will enable RBS to respond to the needs of a growing number of corporates that centralise and automate trade transactions.”