Continuing their unique collaboration, GSBN, IQAX and ICE Digital Trade now enable cross-platform electronic bill of lading (eBL) transactions involving banks.

New Golden Sea Shipping (a COSCO Group subsidiary), Lenzing (Thailand) Co., Ltd, HSBC Thailand, China Zheshang Bank (CZBank), and Jiangsu Dasheng Group Co., Ltd. have successfully completed a live eBL transaction, marking a significant step toward scalable interoperability in trade finance.

The transaction began with New Golden Sea Shipping issuing the eBL to Lenzing Thailand on IQAX eBL. It was then transferred to HSBC Thailand via ICE CargoDocs and presented to CZBank on the same platform. Finally, the eBL was surrendered by Jiangsu Dasheng via IQAX eBL. This end-to-end flow demonstrates cross-platform connectivity and, importantly, successful integration of both shipping and banking networks.

By connecting the IQAX eBL and ICE CargoDocs platforms and leveraging GSBN’s blockchain-powered infrastructure to ensure singularity, this collaboration has proven that eBLs can move securely and seamlessly across platforms, industries, and jurisdictions.

In developing this partnership, GSBN, IQAX and ICE Digital Trade have focused on the essential requirements for eBL interoperability: a robust legal framework, a trusted technical solution, a viable liability framework, and P&I Club approval to ensure carrier adoption. This approach meets the needs of the industry, who are engaging in a proactive way to drive eBL adoption in an interoperable world.

By enabling secure and legally valid eBL transfers across multiple platforms — GSBN, together with IQAX eBL and ICE CargoDocs — have demonstrated that eBLs can flow freely across the trade ecosystem, including to and from banks. GSBN’s blockchain-based Control Tracking Registry ensures unicity each time the eBL is transferred across platforms. Combined with an inter-platform liability framework, corporates and banks have a scalable, trusted pathway to digitisation that reduces operational friction and speeds up document handling.