Hana Bank announced Monday that it has inked a memorandum of understanding with global digital solutions provider ICE Digital Trade to innovate trading procedures, especially digitalizing trade-related documents and communications.

ICE Digital Trade, part of New York-listed Intercontinental Exchange, connects over 56 global banks and 65,000 member companies through its digital trade transaction solution, called DSUA or Databridge Services & Users Agreement.

This partnership aims to streamline the complex procedures of banking transactions, including the digital documentation of exports and imports.

This move aligns with the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law’s 2017 recognition of electronic export and import documents as official documents. In response to the evolving dynamics of international trade, the partnership sets up the financial industry’s shift towards leveraging technology to facilitate smoother and faster trade transactions.

Furthermore, Hana Bank and ICE Digital Trade will collaborate on various sectors —including electronic transfers of import and export documents between banks, handling electronically issued export and import rights certificates, and the specialized sending and receiving of trade electronic documents and business processing through an API, or application programming interface.

Now, Hana Bank is set to introduce the Digital e-BL Service within the first half of this year, addressing the long-standing issue of delays caused by its physical handling, the company said. This service is anticipated to significantly reduce the risk associated with paper documents, such as import cargo delays and the inconveniences of prematurely arrived goods, which currently require a letter of guarantee.

"The business agreement with ICE Digital Trade is expected to strengthen the global competitiveness of our export and import operations. We plan to continue promoting the digitalization of export and import documents and expand various digital trade transaction services,” a Hana Bank official said.