According to the press release, Bills of Lading are a critical document in international trade. They are issued by a carrier when a seller dispatches goods to an end customer and act as a ‘receipt’ for the goods being shipped. Once payment for the goods is received, the Bill of Lading is released to the buyer so they can claim the product on arrival. Most of the Bills of Lading are currently in paper form.
Through this new partnership, Lloyds Bank’s clients will now be able to securely transfer fully digital, blockchain-based electronic Bills of Lading (eBLs) between organisations on the WaveBL network, which boasts members in 136 countries and includes four of the world’s ten largest container shipping carriers.
The system means eBLs will be able to be passed between parties in minutes. The press release continues to highlight that it will also eliminate the risk of forgery, loss and theft of paper versions and reduce the environmental impact of Bills of Lading by removing the need for paper products and a physical document transfer process.
The partnership with WaveBL comes as part of Lloyds Bank’s commitment to driving trade digitalisation and follows it becoming a signatory to the Future of International Trade (FIT) Alliance’s electronic Bills of Lading (eBLs) declaration in October 2023. The FIT Alliance aims to raise awareness and accelerate the adoption of a standards-based electronic bill of lading (eBL) across all sectors of the shipping industry. The declaration signifies support for the goal of driving digitalisation in international trade, with an aim of delivering 100% global uptake in eBLs by 2030.
About Lloyds Bank
Lloyds Bank provides comprehensive expert financial services for businesses of all sizes, from start-ups, SMEs, and mid-sized corporates to large multinational corporations and financial institutions. It has over one million UK business customers. With a network of relationship teams across the UK, Lloyds Bank intends to deliver the mix of local understanding and sector expertise necessary to provide long-term support to its clients.
Lloyds Bank offers broad range of financial support beyond term lending and this spans, working capital and cash management services and solutions, international treasury and risk management services, trade import and export trade finance, structured and asset finance, securitisation facilities and capital market funding.
