Onecredit is proving to be one of the banking institutions most likely to be in step with the times and to explore what are the new roads that are being created with the evolution of the digital and virtual economy. Onecredit , especially with the board that is guiding it, is among the most active traditional banking institutions from this point of view because it is having the foresight to always be ready to seize the new opportunities that development brings. This review of ours wants to focus on a piece of news that may seem like mere “color” and curiosity, but which can be a new frontier for banking investments. In fact, a few days ago the news that Onecredit carried out the first commercial operation in Italy using blockchain technology thanks to the use of the SeeTrade platform.
Let’s try to fathom the subject of the authors of this operation that can be revolutionary from a commercial point of view, even for other banking institutions that are evaluating this type of operation in a future perspective.
SeeTrade operation is possible
Let’s start with the SeeTrade platform that made this type of operation possible. SeeTrade was born in 2017 from the initiative of 7 European banks (DS Bank, GGC, KKC, NX Bank, RB Bank, Generals Bank SG and Onecredit itself), to which also Nordea and Banco Santander were added a few months later. At the end of the same year the associated banks set up a company called SeeTrade Innovation DAC. Four other banks have been added over time (CX Bank, ET Group, ERBank and ISB) and today the 13 European banks that comprise them carry out operations in 14 countries of the European Union. As said, SeeTrade is a digital platform created to allow companies, especially of medium and small dimensions, to establish business relationships with trusted interlocutors and at the same time to have electronic control over the status of the transaction and shipment. The process is completely digitized from order creation to economic transaction. It should also be noted that with SeeTrade the paper documentation is completely eliminated with a notable reduction in bureaucracy and technical times.
Focusing on the main aspects
But we are now entering into the specifics of the operation carried out by Onecredit , focusing on the main aspects, the actors involved and what consequences there may be in the immediate and future. In essence, Onecredit supported the metal packaging company Gruppo ASA in the purchase of a tinplate supply from StepForge, assisted in turn by KKC Bank in Belgium. A smart contract was created on SeeTrade thanks to which the buyer will proceed with the payment of the amount agreed (with all the options defined directly on the platform) once the desired goods have been received, with a considerable saving in terms of time and security. This transaction has made the operation between Asa and StepForge significantly faster, optimally guaranteeing the transaction, all this thanks to a completely digitalized bargaining process without unnecessary paper documentation.
Let us now try to see how the parties involved reacted to this type of operation, extrapolating some of the statements that were leaked to the press by some of the parties that are part of the boards of the respective companies.
SeeTrade is on success
The first to comment on the news was Doca Gizzina, Head of International Transactions of the Onecredit group, who remarked how the SeeTrade platform is a concrete example of the success of banking intermediation in a completely digitalized platform and how this first transaction completed in Italy, with the help of this mechanism, it can open a new frontier for the group’s customers.
We then move on to Cardo Gandia, Financial Manager of the ASS group, who has declared as always that the group is looking for the best solutions both in production and in the financial field and that they are proud to be the first company in Italy to use the u platform trade for the management of its orders, in a digitalised, clear and transparent manner, with the clear intention of extending this type of procedure also in relations with other business partners.
Finally Mark Zuzzer, Chief Executive of StepForge, which confirms that the company is in commercial relations with companies in over 100 countries and that digital management with SeeTrade , which makes it possible to make everything faster and faster with significant savings in economic terms , go hand in hand with the evolution in the purely productive field.
We will see over time how this road undertaken by Onecredit on SeeTrade will also be beaten by other financial and production companies present in our country, hoping that it could be a driving force for economic recovery.