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NEW YORK, March 17, 2003 - TradeCard Inc., the leading financial supply chain services provider offering collaborative trade transaction management, announced an agreement with Taiwan-based Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank today, that will enable TradeCard members in Taiwan to apply for export financing from the bank directly through the TradeCard Platform. The Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank is one of the top three banks in Taiwan in terms of the export negotiation balance processed and the fifth Taiwanese bank to join the TradeCard network of service partners. The number of online requests for financing for TradeCard partner banks in Taiwan grew by nearly 500% in 2002 year-on-year.
"When our customers approached us and asked whether we could provide them financing online through TradeCard, we looked into it and decided that this would help us enhance our customers' business," said Y.P. Chen, President of the Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank. "As a bank who prides itself on our record of innovations and focus on our customers' success, we see TradeCard as a perfect match."
After receiving and accepting a purchase order from the buyer on the TradeCard Platform, TradeCard vendor-members will be able to send a secure online application for financing to the Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank to ensure additional working capital for managing manufacturing and receivables. The Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank will have real-time access to these applications, increasing the speed with which the bank can respond to and approve the financing requests.
Kurt Cavano, Chairman and CEO, TradeCard Inc. commented: "The partnership with the Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank comes at a time of fantastic growth for TradeCard where we add new members daily and our transaction volume is set to increase by between 700-1000% this year. A greater transaction volume means greater demand for our financial services such as export finance, and we are pleased to be able to offer our Taiwanese customers another partner to ensure they have the financing they need to grow their businesses."
TradeCard has been automating financial processes in international and domestic trade including purchase order approvals, payment decisions and settlement since its launch in March 2000. Its network of partners offering value-added services such as trade financing, cargo insurance, payment protection and money movement has been a critical factor in its success and provides TradeCard members easy online access to all of these at competitive rates. The TradeCard service partner network comprises over 100 logistics companies, sixteen financial institutions, the top three inspection services (Bureau Veritas, Inspectorate and SGS), two of the leading providers of export credit insurance (Coface and GE Commercial Services) and the largest broker of cargo insurance (Marsh McLennan)
About TradeCard, Inc.
TradeCard is a financial supply chain service provider and manages trade transactions from procurement through to settlement. The TradeCard solution aligns the documentary and financial requirements of a domestic or international trade transaction with the physical movement of goods, eliminating time-consuming and error-prone manual processes. By streamlining and enhancing the steps necessary for purchase order approvals, payment decisions and settlement, TradeCard provides a cost-effective, practical and patented service for financial supply chain management.
TradeCard can send and receive trade information and documents to and from any country in the world. Our money movement capabilities allow us to move money to any country that has a modern banking system. Our network of financial institution partners allows us to facilitate services such as payment assurance, cargo insurance and trade finance in many countries.
TradeCard, Inc. is headquartered in New York City with offices in the San Francisco Bay Area, Hong Kong, Taipei, Seoul and Tokyo.
TradeCard is a registered trademark in the United States and elsewhere throughout the world. TradeCard can be found on the World Wide Web at http://www.tradecard.com.
About the Shanghai Commercial & Savings Bank
Established in Shanghai in 1915 and re-established in Taiwan in 1965, the Shanghai Commercial &
Savings Bank (SCSB) is the only private bank relocated to Taiwan from China. Committed "to serve the society; to assist industries and business," the bank is widely known for its expertise in foreign exchange services. Its exchange remittance and trade financing products and services have been well recognized and adopted by clients. As cross-strait trades grow with Taiwanese enterprises aggressively entering the China market, SCSB is actively developing OBU business in an effort to create an OBU-based cross-strait capital-flow platform for businesses in Taiwan, China and Hong Kong, with the goal to offer best services in Greater China. In recent years, SCSB has been working on expanding its business locations and service offerings as well as e-commerce services.
Approved in August 2001 as the first Taiwanese bank to deal financially with banks in China, SCSB has re-invested in Shanghai Commercial Bank (Hong Kong) and established a cross-strait correspondent alliance with Shanghai Bank (China). The bank not only supports government policy and responds to customer needs but also provides businesses with the fastest remittance channel, for which SCSB was awarded last year with the Best International Development category of the first Taiwan Excellent Financial Business Elite Award. For more SCSB information, see http://www.scsb.com.tw
