Ellie Horvath
Partnership streamlines processes for faster lending decisions by offering a next-generation digital solution
NORD/LB, one of Germany’s largest commercial banks, is accelerating access to finance for its large corporate customers, in a partnership with Trade Ledger, the global data-driven lending technology provider.
NORD/LB will use the Trade Ledger platform to originate and manage receivables finance facilities for large corporate customers. Processing and managing large receivables secured loans is admin-heavy and has previously required significant amounts of manual work on an ongoing basis, limiting the ability to distribute this popular product.
NORD/LB currently releases funds within 7 working days of a receivables finance client raising an invoice. Through the Trade Ledger platform, the bank expects to reduce this to just 24 hours, significantly improving access to working capital finance for its customers.
The Trade Ledger platform, which is designed specifically for asset backed business lending solutions, gathers and analyses digital data required for loan origination, including acquiring invoices direct from borrowers’ enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems such as SAP. It augments and in some cases automates the bank’s operations with the analysis and insight they need to make better lending decisions. Real-time digital data can feed NORD/LB’s downstream systems, meaning end-to-end processes are kept in sync, and an always up-to-date view of the customer’s funding position is maintained.
Martin Hartmann, Head of Markets at NORD/LB said: “We selected Trade Ledger because it has an innovative technology suite and already works successfully with large banks in the trade receivables finance space. We are really excited to develop this into a unique proposition for our large corporate customers, working to provide data driven working capital solutions on a digitised platform.”
Martin McCann, CEO at Trade Ledger, added: “For NORD/LB we are creating something truly market-leading – there is no equivalent fully digital solution in the large corporate receivables finance space. This is a world first and a great opportunity for both companies to create something really innovative.”
Trade Ledger is a leading global technology provider for the commercial banking and financial services industry, supporting banks by enabling lending products to be created and offered at the right time, over the right channel. Its platform provides an API-first lending-as-a-service (LaaS) capability that accelerates business lending decisions and loan origination. Trade Ledger has global customers headquartered in the UK and Australia, and the addition of NORD/LB further strengthens the fintech’s presence in Europe.
About NORD/LB
NORD/LB Norddeutsche Landesbank is one of the leading German commercial banks. The core business segments include business with corporate customers, private and commercial customers including private banking as well as special finance in the energy and infrastructure sector, aircraft finance and commercial real estate finance. The bank is headquartered in Hanover, Brunswick and Magdeburg and has branches in Bremen, Oldenburg, Hamburg, Schwerin, Düsseldorf and Munich. Outside Germany NORD/LB is represented by a Pfandbrief Bank (NORD/LB Covered Bond Bank) in Luxembourg and branches in London, New York and Singapore.
About Trade Ledger
Trade Ledger was founded in 2016 to help the financial services sector reimagine complex business finance for SMEs and mid-market corporates in the digital economy.
The lending-as-a-service (LaaS) platform supports secured and unsecured business lending products, transforming data sources from the supply chain into actionable insights and tasks. This enables the right lending products to be created at the right time, over the right channel, quickly, at low risk. Its clients boost profitability, realising average 60% origination cost reduction, 50% reduction in dropouts and loan book growth potential of over 100% through embedded finance.
Backed by venture capitalists Point72 Ventures, Foundation Capital and Hambro Perks, and other notable investors such as Court Lorenzini (founder of DocuSign), Trade Ledger is scaling globally to accommodate a fast-growing client base of global trade banks, regional and national banks, and alternative finance providers. To date it has raised £16.6 million.
Trade Ledger was awarded LendTech Initiative of the Year 2020, Lending Platform of the Year 2019, and Startup of the Year 2019.
