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PT Bank Negara Indonesia (Persero) Tbk (BNI) has unified its domestic and international trade finance operations on Finastra’s Trade Innovation platform, a move the bank says has accelerated customer onboarding by around 25% and reduced approval timelines across its regional network.
The deployment replaces multiple legacy systems with a centralised platform hosted in Jakarta, providing a single source of truth for trade finance reporting while supporting local regulatory requirements in overseas markets. BNI is completing the migration of nine international locations from standalone local instances to a centralised system as part of its broader trade modernisation program.
Trade finance remains a process-intensive business for banks, often constrained by fragmented systems, manual compliance checks, and long turnaround times. By consolidating operations onto a single platform, BNI aims to improve speed, transparency, and scalability while positioning itself to integrate more effectively with FinTech and AI partners as digital trade volumes grow.
According to the bank, the platform has delivered measurable operational gains since going live. Customer onboarding has accelerated by approximately 25%, enabling service-level agreements of under three hours for certain services. Automated compliance workflows and straight-through processing have reduced approval cycles, with most trade approvals now completed within one day. BNI reports a 10% increase in customer acquisition in the current fiscal year, supported by digital trade services across more than 160 branches and over 2,645 trade customers.
The centralised architecture also enables advanced analytics and risk modelling, while simplifying integration with external technology providers. Finastra provided end-to-end implementation and co-innovation services, supported by a local systems integrator for on-site deployment and localisation.
Andrew Bateman, EVP for Lending at Finastra, said, “Modernising trade finance is essential for banks to serve their customers faster and to collaborate effectively with FinTech and AI innovators. Working with BNI, we delivered a scalable, centralised platform that streamlines compliance, enhances straight-through processing, and supports rapid product innovation across the bank’s regional footprint.”
The implementation underscores how large regional banks are re-architecting trade finance infrastructure to address operational complexity and rising customer expectations, while laying the groundwork for more digital and data-driven trade ecosystems.
