İşbank becomes Turkey's 1st blockchain foreign trade guarantor

Private lender İşbank on May 27 announced that it became the first Turkish bank to offer payment guarantee in foreign trade using blockchain technology.

According to a written statement by the bank, the transaction, in which Turkish glass manufacturer Şişecam, German-based chemicals company Kuraray Europe GmbH, İşbank, and Commerzbank were the parties, was carried out on the Marco Polo platform on May 10.

The bank tested the blockchain technology through the two transactions conducted in the pilot environment in May and November last year and this last one has become the first live foreign trade transaction conducted through the blockchain technology in Turkey.

The transaction between Germany and Turkey was also the first one conducted in the payment guarantee module of the international Marco Polo platform, it said.

Commenting on the conduct, İşbank Deputy Chief Executive Şahismail Şimsek said the blockchain technology and smart contracts eliminated the operational workload in conventional business models, constituting an alternative which offers transparency, speed, and trust for the parties.

"Following the two pilot transactions we carried out in 2020, we have now successfully completed a live foreign trade transaction by using the blockchain technology," he stressed.

The use of payment methods based on physical documents is decreasing and the need for data matching and banking services based on electronic commerce is increasing, he added.

Cyril Broutin, Marco Polo's head of business development in Turkey, also said: "We are immensely proud to have İşbank as a partner bank and Sisecam as the first Turkish corporate client on the Marco Polo Network and are grateful for their vision and commitment to digital trade....