Multinational banking and financial services giant Barclays and innovative startup firm Wave have together executed a global trade transaction using blockchain technology.

According to the official release, the new blockchain-based system makes use of blockchain technology in order to make sure that every party can see, transfer title and transmit the original trade documents. This is done through a secure decentralized network by eliminating various current inefficiencies in international trade. The newly developed solution will reduce the costs for companies across the globe, speed-up the trade transactions and reduce the risk of documentation fraud.

“One of the biggest headaches in global trade currently is the vast movement of paper required to facilitate transactions, with multiple organizations in the chain. That is why we’ve been very keen to partner with Wave in using blockchain technology to save time and money for our clients, and potentially transform trade finance for businesses around the world,” Baihas Baghdadi, global head of Trade & Working Capital at Barclays said.

The letter of credit transaction between companies Ornua and Seychelles Trading is the first to have trade documentation over the new Wave platform. Being one of the eleven companies to attend the Barclays Accelerator programme in New York last summer, Wave has been working with Barclays’ Trade & Blockchain team in the UK and South Africa in a move to explore various use cases of the distributed ledger technology.

“Effective use of blockchain technology really can have a huge impact on the future of trade. By adopting our system, trade can be done more easily and more cheaply. We think we’ve got the right answer, and look forward to working with Barclays to develop it further and create an industry-wide solution,” Gadi Ruschin, CEO at Wave said.

After the successful pilot, both the companies will be working with a select group of trade finance clients in order to develop the service further.