Recent developments of note include:
Three banks have left the Batavia blockchain consortium to join we.trade, a similar trade finance initiative. CaixaBank, Erste Group and UBS have become shareholders of the we.trade blockchain platform, thus bringing the number of banking shareholders to 12. They join Deutsche Bank, HSBC, KBC, Natixis, Nordea, Rabobank, Santander, Société Générale and UniCredit. Batavia will now cease to exist, but according to players involved in the initiatives, the move represents a decision to merge the two platforms, rather than shutting Batavia down.
Blockchain technology could, in an appropriate legal environment, facilitate the use of electronic documentation in a manner that provides the users with confidence in the documentation's validity and finality and in the transactors' rights in the documentation. In order to have confidence in blockchain transactions, users must be able to rely on the legal underpinnings of such electronic documentation.
https://www.r3.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/Code_Is_Not_Law_R3_2_3.pdf
The major emerging innovation trends within financial services are increasingly global, rather than domestic, in nature. For instance, big data, artificial intelligence (AI), and blockchain-based solutions are being developed and deployed simultaneously in different financial markets. ?
https://www.fca.org.uk/publication/consultation/gfin-consultation-document.pdf
The Asian Development Bank (ADB) launched its first Trade Finance Scorecard, a new tool to address market gaps stemming from the unintended consequences of global measures to fight money-laundering and terrorism.
https://www.adb.org/news/adb-unveils-first-scorecard-boost-access-trade-finance
Standard Chartered has collaborated with the financing arm of German multinational Siemens, Siemens Financial Services, and TradeIX, a digital trade provider, to carry out an industry-first client pilot to create an end-to-end blockchain-based smart guarantee.