JUST AS one-stop shopping has turned the freight forwarding industry on its head and spawned a whole new breed of fourth party logistics providers, cargo risk management specialists are fast spreading their tentacles in the direction of trade finance.
Taking its first tentative steps is Eikos Risk Applications which launched two years ago with the promise of providing holistic trade solutions.
We're starting to see demand for trade finance through trade portals like Mbendi with which we are involved, says director Hugh Reimers. These products are also offered through the likes of Africa Port Network and Freight Route.
It's a very new area for us, and it will take time for the trade portals to start producing business (either insurance or trade finance), but we have had a few requests already which we're beginning to process.
We call our product Universal Trade Application which is not merely looking at insurance of cargo but providing the cargo owner, through the freight forwarder, with an all-encompassing trade solution.
And this is driven by demand from the cargo owner who is increasingly calling for the freight forwarder to become involved in trade finance.
We are responding to this demand from the cargo owner through the distribution platform platform of the freight forwarder and into the future via e-commerce platforms, says Reimers, who believes that banks will increasingly face competition from the freight forwarding industry, as it takes on more of a banking role.
Banks will need to respond to that competition and we are already seeing some movement in that direction which can only result in positive benefits for the consumer.
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