Surecomp’s RIVO™ Collaboratively Processes Electronic Bill of Lading for Voith and MAN

Published: September 20, 2023

Surecomp today announced that its RIVO™ solution is enabling unified electronic Bills of Lading (eBL) processing across various issuers, having successfully completed multiple ownership changes of a transaction between German corporates MAN and Voith.

Serving as a centralised hub through which all parties can access, track and manage the title ownership of eBLs, the transaction - supported by ICC Germany, the German National Committee of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) - was executed by leveraging the seamless integration with WaveBL, one of several leading providers of digital trade document exchange with whom RIVO™ is connected. Through RIVO, machinery exporter Voith proved it is possible to present and exchange an eBL under an electronic Letter of Credit with German-based manufacturing company MAN Truck & Bus, who acted as the importer in this transaction. During the workflow - in collaboration with their respective banking partner, a leading Asian bank - the title ownership of an eBL was efficiently changed using WaveBL.

Significantly enhancing efficiency and scalability, RIVO™ allows trade counterparties to communicate in real-time and to manage eBLs aggregated in a common platform. This enables greater operational stability and scalability across global teams, and provides the foundation for advancements in digital document exchange facilitated by the recent passing of the UK Electronic Trade Documents Act (ETDA).

“Surecomp is an important partner for ICC Germany in helping to digitise foreign trade,” says Oliver Wieck, Secretary General at ICC Germany. “These pilot transactions not only demonstrate the great need for and interest in driving paperless trade, but also illustrate the enormous potential when committed global players unite towards a common goal.”

“This collaboration perfectly demonstrate why RIVO™ was designed,” says Enno-Burghard Weitzel, Surecomp’s SVP of Strategy, Business Development and Digitisation. ”Bringing together corporate traders, their banking partners and fintechs to facilitate transactions and accelerate processes - hence removing the barriers to international trade - is precisely what we set out to achieve, so we are delighted to see it in action.”

“Electronic trade documents is not a futuristic vision, it is happening now,” says Ofer Ein Bar, WaveBL’s VP Business Development. “Now that major barriers have been removed following the approval of the ETDA, we can look towards a future with paperless trade documents, and pave the way for data-based trade finance products.”