Finastra announces strategic collaboration with Contour

By Leandra Monteiro

Finastra announced a strategic collaboration to integrate its Fusion Trade Innovation software with Contour, the global digital trade finance network, providing banks and corporates with a streamlined end-to-end back-office workflow. Users may access their data through either platform, providing banks with increased efficiency and faster turnaround times when processing Letter of Credit transactions. Ultimately, it opens the door for increased access to trade finance and stronger returns for banks.

Carl Wegner, CEO of Contour commented, “Our partnership with Finastra is an important step forward in breaking down barriers to adoption and increasing access to trade finance. By integrating with Finastra’s Fusion Trade Innovation, financial institutions and corporates will have access to an end-to-end ecosystem of services that will enable them to transact seamlessly and securely.”

Global trade is a multi-trillion-dollar industry that corporates and consumers rely upon daily. To increase efficiencies, many financial institutions have sought a network to support collaborative workflows between trade participants. Finastra and Contour address this need via this new integration, enabling digital adoption while decreasing client costs, reducing reliance on paper transactions, and reducing risk.

Together, Finastra and Contour will further accelerate the adoption of digital trade solutions by linking together the two key components of digital trade finance – a deeply integrated core banking platform for internal processes, and an external decentralized network for bank and corporate customer communication. The solution offers full transparency and visibility, reducing the Letter of Credit lifecycle by up to seven days, freeing up working capital for corporates and improving returns for banks.

Isabel Fernandez, EVP, Lending Business Unit at Finastra said, “We are excited to connect with Contour, an innovative leader in this space, in our journey to orchestrate the digital trade ecosystem for our clients. Finastra is focused on making it simple for our financial institution clients to connect seamlessly to the global trade ecosystem so they can maximize business efficiency and develop new business opportunities. We’re pleased that this collaboration enables corporates, particularly small and medium enterprises (SMEs), access to trade and working capital finance where they transact.”