Standard Chartered launches Trade AI Engine, developed in partnership with IBM
The solution aims to enhance the client experience in trade document processing through increased operational efficiency and strengthened operational control.
Standard Chartered today announces the official launch of the Trade AI Engine, a joint solution developed in partnership with IBM which aims to enhance the client experience in trade document processing through increased operational efficiency and strengthened operational control.
At present, the solution is live in key markets across Asia, Africa and the Middle East, with more markets across the Bank’s footprint to follow.
The Trade AI Engine enables conversion of non-digital shipping documents into machine-readable format enabled by Optical Character Recognition (OCR). In addition, it identifies and classifies document types from an initial pre-defined database.
The functionalities of the new solution also include Continuous Machine learning (ML) based on user re-classification / re-defining of data elements to further improve accuracy, as well as Natural Language Processing (NLP) capabilities to read and capture context from data in the documents.
The innovative solution allows the Bank to handle high volumes of diverse back office tasks with greater efficiency and accuracy, thus offering a more seamless trade processing experience for clients.
Lisa Robins, Global Head, Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered said: “The Trade AI Engine significantly reduces the amount of time and effort in this review process while raising the bar on our controls environment, further enhancing our ability to play the connector role for our clients by facilitating transactions at pace with the growth of their businesses.”
Likhit Wagle, VP, Financial Services Sector, IBM Asia Pacific commented: “The Trade AI Engine enables multi-format document capture without templates and uses NLP to extract relevant information for review, as well as leveraging user interaction to improve text extraction accuracy and streamline the process with each cycle in real-time.”
The launch of the Trade AI Engine underlines Standard Chartered’s efforts to innovate and drive digital transformations. In 2018, Standard Chartered announced its partnership with Siemens Financial Services and TradeIX to carry out an industry-first client pilot to create an end-to-end blockchain-based smart guarantees proposition in trade finance. More recently, it also announced the launch of an expanded coverage of Straight2Bank Pay, a digital collections gateway for corporate clients, to additional markets in Asia, as well as the Straight2Bank Pay mobile app in Singapore.
Let’s also note the introduction of SC Ventures Fintech Bridge in March this year. The platform connects and matches partners from the fintech ecosystem to the bank’s internal community, where they can propose solutions to challenges posted by the bank’s business units or request investments. Investors can also use the portal to recommend start-ups to the bank for future collaborations.
