VIDEO | Applying digital tools to streamline trade finance workflows - Trade Treasury Payments

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At the ITFA Americas Annual Conference in Miami, Trade Treasury Payments (TTP) sat down with Michael Mandell, Managing Director for the Americas at Komgo, to discuss the evolution of digital tools in trade finance and how institutions are progressing from manual processes to integrated platforms.

Mandell said, “Komgo’s focus is on removing paper from the process and automating the workflows that have been manual for decades. We’re looking across the entire technology stack, helping both financial institutions and corporates handle complex, high-volume trade activities in a more efficient way.”

While innovation in trade finance has often lagged behind other areas of financial services, that is beginning to change, driven by the growing application of artificial intelligence (AI) to targeted use cases. Rather than getting caught up in hype cycles, Mandell sees real value in narrowly applying AI to repetitive and error-prone tasks.

“For example, we’re using AI to extract information from draft invoices and populate trade instruments within platforms like GTK. Other solutions, such as Konsole and Market, have also seen significant enhancements,” Mandell said. “We’re also using AI to compare documents, helping to automate document checking, an area that has traditionally been labour-intensive and highly manual.”

The benefits are tangible. One Komgo client has shared that GTK reduced their average issuance time of trade instruments by 50% and allowed them to shift 70% of new guarantees to fully automated workflows.

Mandell noted that the most forward-thinking companies are those using structured data to improve reporting, enhance connectivity, and replace static documents with dynamic platforms.

“They’re starting to treat our platform as a golden source of data,” he said, “instead of relying on Excel files or stacks of paperwork.”

Reflecting on the conference, Mandell remarked that technology has become central in the trade finance conversation. “Every panel I’ve seen today has touched on technology,” he said. “It’s gone from being something you needed to have to being the starting point for solving industry-wide challenges.”

And his message to the broader market? Stay curious.

“Be open-minded. Talk to organisations. Learn what best practices are out there,” Mandell said. “There’s no one-size-fits-all solution, but there’s a lot to gain from understanding how others are applying technology to improve their operations.”