BANK OF AFRICA selects Conpend TRADE AI app, via Finastra, to digitize trade processes

Conpend's TRADE AI app will help reduce risk and speed up trade finance transactions

LONDON, April 28, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Finastra has announced BANK OF AFRICA, a pan-African financial group, has selected Conpend's TRADE AI app from its open innovation platform, FusionFabric.cloud. The app extends the functionality of Finastra's Fusion Trade Innovation technology and enables users to reduce document and compliance checking time. It digitizes trade finance processes, using optical character recognition (OCR), natural language processing (NLP) and progressive machine learning to reduce the risk and cost of trade finance operations.

"The solution will improve our trade finance operations by speeding up the approval of trade finance documents. We expect it will digitize manual, paper-based processes, reduce processing time by 30 per cent, and reduce trade finance risk levels by up to 80 per cent. Having access to third-party apps was a clear differentiator when looking at trade finance solutions," said Leila Bahoum, Board member in charge of Trade Finance Operations from OGS Subsidiary of BANK OF AFRICA.

Conpend TRADE AI extracts unstructured data from scanned paper documents and can also process already digitized data. The data is then screened and analyzed, using rules and advanced analytics, to empower business users to make informed business decisions quickly and accurately. It is fully compliant with all major global regulations and automatically performs all necessary compliance checks for a trade transaction. This includes money laundering screening and handling alerts during the screening process, which dramatically reduces false positives and time spent on decision-making. The solution also enables vessel checking and voyage tracking to support goods in transit.

Marc Smith, Founder and Director, Conpend said, "We're so pleased that BANK OF AFRICA has chosen to plug our innovative technology into its systems. This is one of the big benefits of us making our app available on Finastra's FusionFabric.cloud. We've been able to build our solution out quickly on the platform and make it available to banks around the world in support of Finastra's vision of openness and collaboration."

Anastasia McAlpine, Principal Product Manager, Trade and Supply Chain Finance at Finastra said, "This is another great example of banks and fintechs collaborating to bring innovative technology to market fast. We are confident BANK OF AFRICA will realize great results with the Conpend Trade AI app and look forward to other banks tapping into this opportunity to further enhance the functionality of our Fusion Trade Innovation."

For more information about Conpend's TRADE AI app on FusionFabric.cloud visit: https://store.fusionfabric.cloud/details/tradeai/ 

For further information please contact:
Caroline Duff
Global Head of PR
T +44 (0)7917 613586
E caroline.duff@finastra.com 
finastra.com

About BANK OF AFRICA

BANK OF AFRICA is a multi-business universal banking group and one of Africa's leading financial institutions. Its wide range of business activities includes commercial banking, investment banking, bank-insurance and asset management. BANK OF AFRICA, established in 1959, is Morocco's most internationally-oriented banking group with operations in 31 countries in Africa, Europe, Asia and North America, the Group employs more than 15 200 employees. Its 1,800 branches serve 6.6 million customers. BANK OF AFRICA is a leading player in environmental matters and corporate social responsibility. BANK OF AFRICA Foundation aims to promote education in rural areas for children from disadvantaged backgrounds and to contribute to environmental protection in Morocco and sub-Saharan Africa. Learn more at bankofafrica.ma

About Finastra

Finastra is building an open platform that accelerates collaboration and innovation in financial services, creating better experiences for people, businesses and communities. Supported by the broadest and deepest portfolio of financial services software, Finastra delivers this vitally important technology to financial institutions of all sizes across the globe, including 90 of the world's top 100 banks. Our open architecture approach brings together a number of partners and innovators. Together we are leading the way in which applications are written, deployed and consumed in financial services to evolve with the changing needs of customers. Learn more at finastra.com

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