UK-based financial software application and marketplace provider Finastra has signed a global agreement with Microsoft . This initiative builds upon the existing availability of Finastra Trade Innovation within the cloud infrastructure, and its primary objective is to provide banks with improved agility, flexibility, and scalability by delivering the complete functionality of Trade Innovation through a microservices architecture hosted on Microsoft Azure.

In essence, this move aims to empower banks to consistently offer excellent services to their customers throughout their modernisation endeavours. According to the official press release, the evolution of corporate customer expectations necessitates financial institutions to provide a seamless and engaging transactional experience in both trade finance and supply chain finance operations, aligning with the principles of Open Finance. The expansion of open APIs through Trade Innovation and Finastra's open innovation platform, FusionFabric.cloud, will allow customers to leverage a dynamic digital trade ecosystem, furthering the digitalisation of the entire transaction lifecycle.

Representatives from Finastra talked about this joint effort with Microsoft and emphasised the strategic vision shared by both companies. They also highlighted that customers are eager to modernise their trade finance and supply chain offerings while accessing the latest innovations through collaboration with ecosystem partners. This agreement aims to grant both existing and new customers increased flexibility to connect, collaborate, and adapt to evolving customer demands and regulatory changes.

Officials from Microsoft expressed enthusiasm about strengthening their collaboration with Finastra to support banks in their trade modernisation journeys. They brought up the combined power of Finastra's Trade Innovation platform and FusionFabric.cloud, alongside Microsoft Azure and advancements in data and artificial intelligence. This collaboration is expected to accelerate innovation, enhance operational efficiencies, improve customer engagement, and facilitate large-scale transformation for financial institutions.

Datos Insights officials highlighted the industry trends of reducing manual processes in trade finance, the growth of supply chain finance, and the emergence of fintech players. The official press release details that these trends are motivating banks to embrace API-based Open Banking, artificial intelligence, and data analytics. To navigate these changes successfully, banks require modern and open systems, along with the support of industry leaders.

What else has Finastra been up to? In September 2023, Finastra launched its Compliance as a Service solution on Microsoft Azure to help banks combat financial crime for instant payments. Finastra Compliance as a Service includes Fincom’s real-time anti-money laundering (AML) transaction screening and ThetaRay’s AI-powered transaction monitoring as a pre-integrated packaged solution with Finastra Payments To Go. In the same month, Finastra revealed that its loan document preparation system LaserPro became available on its cloud.

Following this announcement, the launch of LaserPro on the cloud was set to streamline loan document compliance management offerings and capabilities for banks and financial institutions, with a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) model that was developed to offer faster loan processing for borrowers. .