Trade Finance Registry and SGTraDex launch Bill of Lading Genuineness Check to further strengthen trade finance risk mitigation

26 February 2025

On 12 February 2025, the Trade Finance Registry (“TFR”) and Singapore Trade Data Exchange (“SGTraDex”) launched their collaboration on the Bill of Lading (“BL”) Genuineness Check, an automated industry-wide solution for banks in Singapore to verify the genuineness of BLs in real time. 

BLs are transferable documents that represent ownership of goods in transit. They are integral in facilitating the maritime shipment of goods and typically used as supporting documents to apply for trade financing. Currently, verification is a manual process that involves banks calling or sending emails. With the BL Genuineness Check, banks can retrieve data points from carriers quickly and automatically. The process involves banks submitting relevant trade document data points to the TFR for duplicate financing checks and BL verification. To conduct the latter, SGTraDex, acting as the primary data conduit via an API connection with TFR, securely routes a request for information to carrier data aggregators such as Portcast. From there, relevant carrier information is rapidly retrieved from carriers such as Ocean Network Express and transmitted back to TFR for the bank to complete the verification check. 

The solution showcases how digitalisation can enhance trade finance efficiency, strengthen fraud and risk mitigation, and bolster trust and confidence among supply chain ecosystem players. It also strengthens Singapore’s position as a robust global trade finance hub. 

To date, around 70% of TFR participant banks are slated to use the BL Genuineness Check as one of several avenues to verify their BLs. SGTraDex intends to partner with more carriers and data aggregators to further strengthen the value proposition of this industry utility. 

Background 

The TFR was launched by the Association of Banks in Singapore (“ABS”) in June 2023 as a national banking utility designed to enhance the transparency and integrity of trade finance in Singapore. The BL Genuineness Check is part of TFR’s roadmap and builds on the Duplicate Financing Check capability launched in 2023. The BL Genuineness Check also forms a key pillar of SGTraDex’s Trade Finance Physical to Digital Twinning use case, which aims to digitalise data exchanges between banks, corporates, and logistics players. 

Reference materials 

The press release is available on the ABS website www.abs.org.sg.