Standard Chartered partner with Linklogis to deliver sustainable trade finance

Standard Chartered and Linklogis, a leading supply chain finance technology solution provider in China, have announced a joint venture to establish Olea, a fully-digitised trade finance origination and distribution platform to bring together institutional investors seeking opportunities in an alternative asset class with businesses requiring supply chain financing, subject to regulatory approval.

Olea’s risk analytics and secure platform offers investors access to investment options for returns that align with their risk profiles. It provides a radically transparent, speedier and hassle-free way to access working capital for supply chain participants regardless of size.

Investors gain access to a full range of trade finance assets globally – and particularly in Asia – with credible insights on asset quality, while supply chains partners can access financing via transparent and frictionless processes.

Worldline and Bitcoin Suisse launch WL Crypto Payments in Switzerland

Worldline and Bitcoin Suisse announce the go-live of their omnichannel crypto payment solution for the more than 85’000 Swiss merchants in the Worldline network. Now all merchants in Switzerland using the Worldline point-of-sale and e-commerce payment services can let their clients pay in Bitcoin and Ether as easily as with other traditional payment options.

The integrated service offered by Worldline and Bitcoin Suisse named WL Crypto Payments, lets merchants accept Bitcoin and Ether as a payment option at the point-of-sale (POS) and in e-commerce. Merchants can easily download the WL Crypto Payments mobile app or conveniently install the Worldline payment plugin for their webshop. Clients paying with crypto may do so through their usual mobile crypto wallet application. Prices shown by the merchant in CHF can be, upon selection by the customer, alternatively quoted in Bitcoin or Ether in real-time, paid for with crypto, and get confirmed to the merchant instantly. WL Crypto Payments enables merchants to offer payments with cryptocurrencies without being exposed to volatility risks, as the crypto transaction is securely converted into Swiss Francs straight after payment confirmation. Merchants benefit further by settlement in Swiss Francs and pay-out processes bundled with other payment options, like credit cards.

The crypto payments collaboration between Worldline and Bitcoin Suisse was first announced in November 2019. The rollout to all Worldline merchants in Switzerland was preceded by a successful pilot program.

Nigeria chooses Bitt as CBDC pilot partner

The Central Bank of Nigeria has selected CBDC specialist Bitt as the technical partner for its eNaria digital currency project which they have been working on since 2017.

They will begin a pilot at the beginning of October.

The central bank believes that eNaria will lead to better cross-border trade, financial inclusion, cheaper and faster remittance inflows, easier targeted social interventions, as well as improvements in monetary policy effectiveness, payment systems efficiency, and tax collection.

Bank of Canada launches Lynx new high-value payment system

Lynx processes high value, urgent with real-time settlement finality and with enhanced cyber security and resiliency. It replaces the Large Value Transfer System (LVTS) and inherits operational functions to:

• reinforce the Bank’s policy interest rate
• provide a means for settling obligations from other financial market infrastructures (FMIs)
• channel liquidity from the Bank to financial institutions in times of crisis

A second release is planned for late 2022 which will incorporate ISO 20022 message standard.