According to the latest reports on July 21, Windward, the leading Predictive Intelligence company that provides AI (Artificial Intelligence) solutions to advance the global maritime industry has declared the launch of Container Insights that enable companies to encounter live screening and tracking of containers along with Bills of Lading (BOL) verification. To put it simply, this new capability develops & accelerates the efficiency of screening operations for trade finance transactions and empowers legal authorities to evaluate doubtful containers, giving them comprehensive insights into the vessels, behaviors, organizations, and containers, all in a single platform.

With this latest functionality, Windward is advancing its present Cargo Insights offerings, as per the announcement. In the present circumstances, more than half of the 12 trillion dollars of seaborne trade is delivered by way of packed goods.

According to Windward CEO and Co-founder Ami Daniel in the announcement, “Risk experiences for containers of interests and BOL verification are vital for any company that executes transactions with global trade to get the idea of who they are entering into a contract with.” He also took into account that the firm is considering the latest functionalities, developing its datasets, and keeping rebuilding its behavioral models.

As part of a due diligence process in a trade flow, banks investigate every company and ship engaged in the deal. Bill of Lading (BOL) and Letter of Credit (LC) consist of container numbers but may not contain the vessel IMO (International Maritime Organization) number that makes it complex for the banks to fully vet the deal. Apart from this, as part of anti-money laundering and fraud activities, banks are required to separately evaluate and prove that those trade transactions were indeed executed and were not involved in the laundering activities in anyways.

Additionally, containers are generally used for the transporting of illegal goods. For example, UNODC seizure information signifies that the greater part of the cocaine accessible in the European drug market is carried to Europe via sea, basically in maritime container shipments arriving at significant container ports such as Antwerp, Rotterdam, Hamburg, and Valencia. To cope with the situation, legal authorities are required to fully evaluate all the vessels, and cargo within their area and can figure out a doubtful activity before smuggled goods reach their destination.

These Winward’s Container Insights help Windward’s clients deal with these hurdles/risks by providing them with the data and tracking information on shipping containers while connecting the containers to ships, places & companies. As a result, clients can keep an eye on the location of a container, its current status, its anticipated time of arrival, and its booked ETA at the moment.

In addition to this, this technology also facilitates a “Free approval capability for BOL verification and with information on the actual delivery status, empowering stakeholders to execute essential transaction steps” as per the announcement.

Not only this, Windward’s customers operating in the financial and insurance sectors can easily check the current status of their containers of interests as part of their counterparty due diligence trade finance operations. Ultimately, this technology can help in border control as well as rules and regulation implementation activities in current time.

According to Windward CEO and Co-founder Ami Daniel in the announcement, “Windward is developing at an unimaginable speed. We are dispatching new capacities, growing our information sets, and continuously upgrading our conduct models. Maritime trade is complex and generally stakeholders do not get their hands on the entirety of the bits of knowledge they require to completely survey the risks implied. This new capacity joined with our organization risk and ship insights gives our clients an all-inclusive resource for all maritime deal operations."

Trade finance has always been a discussion point regarding its relevance in international trade and protecting the financial interest of the firms. Undoubtedly, it is an important way to accelerate worldwide growth and aid the global economy, yet it is a long way from an ideal instrument. Traditionally, trade finance has been trapped in a web of paperwork, creating moderate hurdles, and friction at almost all places of the workflow from onboarding to funding payouts.

Follow: https://twitter.com/EmerioBanque