Together with top commodity industry players and financial institutions, ABN AMRO is exploring the options to launch Forcefield. This is a digital blockchain platform that can provide real-time insight into trade inventories.
The platform can communicate with physical trade inventories through the Internet of Things, sensors and Near Field Communication chips. As a result, the inventories, which are often collateral for loans, can be monitored very effectively, which will lead to more secure physical handling processes and a reduction of costs.
Karin Kersten, Managing Director of Trade & Commodity Finance: “ABN AMRO is a global player in commodities financing. We are very happy to be among the companies behind Forcefield. This will strengthen the entire commodity trading supply chain. Parties involved will benefit from more effective controls, greater efficiency, transparency and traceability.”
Besides ABN AMRO, Accenture, Anglo American, CMST International, Hartree Partners, ING Bank, Macquarie, Mercuria and OCBC Bank are among the parties that have so far signed up to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to launch Forcefield.
Forcefield has been funded and developed for the past 12 months as a stand-alone product moving through the successful proof of concept phase with Accenture as the technology provider. Following several cycles of development, Forcefield formed as an independent company to finalise the platform deployment and operate as a market utility. The system will initially focus on refined metals, but functionality will be expanded across other dry bulk commodities. Forcefield will be open and inclusive to all market participants in order to drive mass adoption.