Yesterday Swift announced it completed a second Proof of Concept (PoC) to enable interoperability between siloed electronic bill of lading (eBL) solutions. BNY Mellon and Deutsche Bank participated in the trials that involved four blockchain-based eBL platforms.
Bills of lading are critical documents in trade as they represent ownership of cargo in transit. Currently, almost 98% of the 45 million bills of lading and waybills are still paper based. McKinsey previously estimated that digitizing bills of lading could result in $6.5 billion in direct savings and contribute to $30-$40 billion in global trade growth. Paper documents are also prone to forgery. Hence, using eBL with digital signatures can also reduce fraud.
Several shipping trade bodies and organizations, including Swift, are part of the FIT Alliance. Its goal is to encourage the adoption of electronic bills of lading (eBLs). So far more than 90 organizations have made commitments. For example, nine of the ten largest container shipping carriers committed to adopting eBL for half of their cargo within five years and 100% in ten. The bulk cargo association BIMCO has a 25% by 2025 moto.
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