Surecomp: Streamlining the Trade Finance Ecosystem

World Economic Forum has estimated that 20 percent value of trade would be the cost of documentary trade as the banks and corporates spend a hefty amount in processing the trade documents. Companies such as Surecomp were the first ones to realize the tremendous need to automate and streamline the whole process of documentary trade.

Founded in 1987 as a fintech company, Surecomp started its journey as a trade finance software solutions provider and has been focusing on trade and supply chain finance ever since. “We help the banks and corporate stakeholders to streamline the entire trade finance process making it more efficient, reliable, and productive by reducing the costs of supporting the trade. In a way, what we are doing is enhancing global trade,” explains Udayan Kelkar, global head of sales and marketing, Surecomp.

Surecomp has an impressive track record of delivering trade finance solutions to a large client base for three decades. Today, it has over 300 clients globally including banks and corporates across North America, South America, Asia, Europe, Middle East, and Africa. “One measure of success is acquiring new clients and businesses while the other is the ability to retain those clients; we are unique in this regard,” says Kelkar. Not only does Surecomp acquire new clients but also continues to retain the old relationships with banks and corporates, which is a sign of trust that clients have in Surecomp.

Surecomp provides trade finance solutions to banks as well as corporates thus giving it a unique vantage view of the entire trade ecosystem. Its trade finance systems help streamline the management of trade transactions, reduce turnaround time, and optimize costs. Surecomp’s trade finance systems provide customers with visibility into the volume and structure of their trade finance transactions. Its trade finance systems have enabled Surecomp to weave several success stories, with large and small/mid-sized banks as well as several corporates. One of those is of a large global multinational corporation operating in almost 140 countries with over 4000 users. Surecomp’s solutions offer corporate organizations a solution to control and manage the risk involved in documentary trade, control costs, improve the efficiency of their different departments, and manage bank limits or credit lines. The solutions help to automate the entire workflow in order to support approval hierarchies, complex corporate structures, and centralized/ decentralized operations.

One measure of success is acquiring new clients and businesses while the other is the ability to retain those clients; we are unique in this regard

Apart from trade and supply chain finance solutions, Surecomp also provides treasury products to businesses in Latin America and is looking forward to delivering them to businesses outside that region. Taking automation and the entire ecosystem of trade finance to the next level, Surecomp is leveraging new technologies such as blockchain—DLT, artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, open APIs, among others. Currently, the firm is participating in blockchain initiatives and realizing the rapid adoption of open APIs amongst banks and corporates. Surecomp also has started leveraging open APIs to enable its customers to access different trade finance solutions quickly and efficiently. The team has already launched Surecomp open API— SAPI—which allows various stakeholders, banks, customers, and corporates to interact with each other. In a nutshell, Surecomp seems to be taking all the possible initiatives to ensure that it offers the best possible and future proof solutions to its clientele.