Lloyds Bank has successfully executed a digital trade transaction using electronic bills of lading (eBLs), simplifying cross-border trade and reducing paperwork for businesses.

Bills of lading are pivotal in global trade, serving as receipts for shipped goods. Despite their importance, digital adoption has been slow due to the requirement for physical possession. However, electronic trade documentation platforms like Israel’s WaveBL enable seamless transfer of fully digital Bills of Lading, leveraging blockchain technology to ensure authenticity and streamline trade processes worldwide.

Following Lloyds Bank’s recent integration into the WaveBL platform, its clients can securely and seamlessly transfer fully digital eBLs based on blockchain between organisations on the WaveBL network, which boasts members in 136 countries and includes four of the world’s 10 largest container shipping carriers.

Lloyds Bank’s recent deal involved Paull’s Matting, a Somerset-based supplier, importing goods from an Indian exporter. The transaction utilised an eBL issued by Mediterranean Shipping Company through WaveBL, processed via Federal Bank to Lloyds Bank.

This digital approach significantly reduced completion time, costs, and administrative burdens compared to traditional paper-based processes from 15 days to just over 24 hours. Additionally, a digital Promissory Note (dPN) facilitated payment, enhancing efficiency and eliminating the need for physical documentation exchange.

Digital trade in action

Rogier van Lammeren, head of trade and working capital products at Lloyds Bank, said: “Together, the eBL and the dPN have eradicated the need for any physical paper to change hands. This has meant a faster transaction, which helps shorten parties’ working capital cycles, with less risk, at lower cost and with significantly less admin for the businesses involved.

“We’re looking forward to helping more companies take advantage of the significant benefits digital trade offers.”

While Ofer Ein Bar, VP of financial institutions at WaveBL, also added: “The WaveBL platform boasts a proven track record in managing electronic trade documents, with over 500,000 electronic bills of lading issued via our platform since its inception.

“Utilising eBLs and other electronic trade documents in a presentation to banks seamlessly extends our trade digitalisation initiative. We’re proud to jointly lead this effort with Lloyds and Federal Bank.”

 

Senator Elizabeth Warren’s crypto Anti-Money Laundering bill has been causing a massive stir in the crypto industry. But some have pointed out that the senator’s bills have a track record of not going anywhere.

According to data from the bill-tracking platform GovTrack, Warren has introduced 330 bills during her 11 years as a senator. Ten of them were eventually folded into other bills and only one rather obscure bill has ever been enacted as is.

This was the National POW/MIA Flag Act, which requires the prisoner of war/missing in action flag to be displayed alongside the United States flag on certain Federal property.

POW/MIA flag to be required to fly alongside US flag on some buildings if Trump signs the bill on his desk pic.twitter.com/vgtlLteOM8

— American Military News (@AmerMilNews) October 24, 2019

“Very few bills are ever enacted — most legislators sponsor only a handful that are signed into law,” GovTrack explained. Most of the time, Congresspeople take actions such as putting up legislative amendments and working on committees, which go largely unnoticed by the public.

Reintroduced in July, Warren’s Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act aims to close gaps in the country’s money laundering rules by classifying a range of crypto applications — including noncustodial wallets — and firms as financial institutions regulated under the Bank Secrecy Act.

The same rules should apply to the same kinds of financial transactions with the same kinds of risks. So my new, bipartisan ​​Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act will make the crypto industry follow the same anti-money-laundering standards as banks, brokers, & Western Union.

— Elizabeth Warren (@ewarren) December 29, 2022

So far, the bill has garnered bipartisan support and a further five senators from Warren’s Democratic Party agreed to co-sponsor the bill on Dec. 11.

Bill would ‘effectively ban’ Bitcoin — Galaxy Research head

Still, those opposed to the bill warn it will choke out crypto in the U.S.

Galaxy Research’s head of firmwide research, Alex Thorn, claimed in a Dec. 11 X (Twitter) post that the bill would be “an effective ban” on Bitcoin (BTC) and crypto.

Thorn pointed to clauses in the act that extends Know Your Customer (KYC) requirements to crypto wallet providers, miners and validators, saying such decentralized software “cannot plausibly perform centralized compliance functions.”

requiring non-custodial open-source software to perform bank-like compliance is *the big attack* bitcoin’s enemies have always threatened. it’s impossible for bitcoin core, for example, to comply with this, so it amounts to an effective ban of bitcoin in the USA.

— Alex Thorn (@intangiblecoins) December 11, 2023

“Warren’s bill would effectively outlaw crypto in America,” Thorn added.

Related: Bitcoin is of ‘national strategic importance’ says US Space Force officer

Neeraj Agrawal, the communications director at crypto think tank Coin Center, posted on X that the bill is a “direct attack on technological progress” and personal privacy.

While proposed as a solution to potential money laundering and terrorist financing, the bill is in fact a repudiation of liberal values, Agrawal claimed.

The Digital Asset Anti-Money Laundering Act is a direct attack on technological progress and also a direct attack on our personal privacy and autonomy.

Make no mistake, while proposed as a solution to potential money laundering and terrorist financing, the bill is in fact a… pic.twitter.com/8oID1wECGL

— Neeraj K. Agrawal (@NeerajKA) December 11, 2023

“The bill cannot be improved,” he added. “It can only be opposed in its entirety.”

Magazine: Lawmakers’ fear and doubt drives proposed crypto regulations in US