JPMorgan And BNP Paribas Announce Completion Of The First Live Interbank Swiftnet Trade Services Utility Transaction

London, - JPMorgan and BNP Paribas today announced that they have processed the first live interbank end-to-end transaction through the now-commercially available SWIFTNet Trade Services Utility (TSU).

The ’full push through’ TSU transaction was processed between JPMorgan in London and BNP Paribas in Hong Kong, and involved purchase order exchange/acceptance followed by invoice and transport data matching to the purchase order.

TSU was launched by SWIFT earlier this month, and this is the first live transaction that has been conducted between banks using TSU, SWIFT’s new workflow and data matching engine for trade services.

Bruce Proctor, Global Trade Executive at JPMorgan, said, “All the studies show that 80% of all international trade business is handled by open account, so the launch and viability of SWIFTNet TSU is exciting because it allows banks worldwide to compete equally in the open account trade product marketplace. This culminates several years’ work between the banks and SWIFT, and we believe that this new service will be the foundation for SWIFT Trade services in the future, and fully complements JPMorgan’s existing technology offerings.”

Pierre Veyres, BNP Paribas’ Head of Global Trade Services, said, “TSU has generated a strong interest in Asia due to importance of trade and related financial flow in the region. It’s a consistent and workable backbone utility. BNP Paribas considers it in its supply chain management offering, coming from the PO/invoice information to provide inventory, receivable or payable financing. That’s why BNP Paribas made it as a reality, becoming an early live adopter.”

Jackie Keogh, Head of Supply Chain at SWIFT, said, “We are delighted that the first TSU live transaction has been processed successfully, and that the TSU is open for business. The last two years have seen a tremendous cooperative approach between the banks and SWIFT. As a result, we are confident that the SWIFT community will fully utilise the new system capability going forward. Our thanks go out to all the banks concerned.”