Tata Power has announced a partnership with Singapore-based digital trade finance network Contour with an aim to make its financial management process stronger, efficient, and transparent.

By using decentralized technology such as blockchain, Contour’s network brings together firms, banks, and ecosystem partners, onto a reliable network, to help develop an optimized digital trade finance workflow. The integration is said to facilitate the flow of trusted data across the trade routes in the world and existing fragmented ecosystems.

Carl Wegner — Contour CEO said: “As a leading energy player in India with an expanding international footprint, Tata Power is fuelling its growth by digitally transforming its trade finance process. By joining our network of 130+ corporates, Tata Power will be able to unlock more value and drive greater efficiency in trade through our digital solution.”

According to Tata Power, manual and paper-based processes in finance slow down the growth of trade with the creation of additional complexity and costs.

By joining the network of Contour, the Indian energy company will implement an end-to-end digital Letter of Credit (LC) settlement process. This will help the latter benefit from using a digital LC as it will let it present documents within 24 hours compared to the usual 5–10 days of a conventional process.

Sanjeev Churiwala — Tata Power Chief Finance Officer said: “Tata Power’s collaboration with Contour will pave the way for a seamless trade finance process – one that can be made significantly efficient with the robust blockchain-based solution.

“The association is in line with the government’s vision of transforming the country’s financial ecosystem into a digital one, and is also consistent with our organization’s ambition of being sustainability driven and future-ready.”

  blockchain, Carl Wegner, Contour, India, Sanjeev Churiwala, Tata Power