BBVA has signed an agreement to integrate its cross-border payment and financing services on Trusple, a blockchain-based trading platform powered by Alibaba’s affiliate Ant Group, for greater transparency and security.

Trusple aims to accelerate the digital transformation and facilitate the financing of international trade operations, with a special focus on small and mid-sized businesses.

These services will be offered by BBVA Mexico and BBVA Spain so that Mexican and Spanish importers that currently import from China can pay for the operations within Trusple, without having to use external services.

The system uses smart contracts which automatically execute the transactions when the milestones established in the contract by the importer and exporter are reached.

BBVA estimates that the first piloting systems will be launched in early 2022 and the services will be operational for its clients in Spain and Mexico throughout the year.

This agreement makes BBVA the first bank in Spain and Mexico to join the international trade platform, which already has over 10 major financial institutions across the world.

Trusple was launched in September 2020 offering an immutable system in the data log and a single access point to all the tools that address the needs of cross-border trade and financing.

“We hope that by next year, we can help any Spanish or Mexican SME that already makes purchases from Chinese suppliers through this portal with a much simpler, easier and more transparent system,”

said Pablo Lopez Tallada, the Head of International Solutions on BBVA Spain.

This article first appeared on Fintech News Hong Kong.