Russia’s state-owned bank, Sberbank announced today about its new partnership with Komgo blockchain technology which involved its Swiss-subsidiary, Sberbank Switzerland AG which has invested more than $5 million in commodity trade till date. The release did not mention more details about the banking and financial services’ company commodity trade. However, Komgo, which is associated with ConsenSys blockchain tech, specializes in commodity trade finance and credit letters for oil.
In fact, about a year after its public launch in 2018, Komgo supported over $1 billion of trade and financing and added shareholders like oil company Total. Given Russia’s interests in oil and gas, Komgo’s partnership with Sberbank was deemed “important” according to Chief Executive Officer of Komgo, Souleïma Baddi.
Baddi further explained in the release that the “membership” added another layer of trust to Komgo’s digital network. Moreover, this could also mean that Sberbank is associated with Komgo as a member rather than a shareholder. Furthermore, the release stated that Sberbank would allow the blockchain tech firm to unlock key geographical markets for Komgo-based users, as well as customers of Sberbank Switzerland who wanted to trade.
According to the Global Head of Trade Finance of Sberbank and Chairman of the Board of Sberbank (Switzerland) AG, Evgeny Kravchenko: Sberbank supported trade flows with their key markets, Russia & CIS, as well as flows around the world. Kravchenko added in a statement:
We strongly believe that our customers will truly appreciate the enhanced efficiency of their operations due to Komgo’s convenient and high-tech solutions.
Sberbank had always been keen on signing agreements with blockchain companies. In fact, in September 2019, Sberbank announced a partnership with commodity trader Trafigura to run a blockchain trade finance trial for Siberian oil. Additionally, by August this year, the Moscow-based bank decided to tokenize travel agent payments for S7 airline, a domestic airline company.
