The trade finance rails are going on-chain. The servicing stays put.

Tokenization has moved from pilots into production. Banks now move tokenized money for institutional clients every day, regulators have put rulebooks in place, and trade finance, with its documents, receivables and multi-party workflows, is one of the most natural places for it to go next.

For any bank running a trade platform, that raises a practical question: when instruments and money move on new rails, what happens to the system that manages the obligation? Our answer is that very little changes in the core. Tokenization arrives as a new rail and instrument type. Specialist providers run the networks and settlement, an integration layer connects them, and the trade platform keeps booking, servicing and controlling the trade.

Moving an instrument onto a new rail doesn't remove the operational work behind it. A bank still has to book the transaction, calculate fees, monitor limits and maturities, manage risk and compliance, and report it. That is why we see tokenization primarily as a new rail and instrument type rather than a replacement for the trade platform.

Money is already moving on-chain

Payments and deposits are where tokenization is scaling first. J.P. Morgan's Kinexys platform averages around $7bn of transactions a day and has processed more than $4tn since launch.¹ In October 2026, J.P. Morgan extended its deposit token, JPM Coin, from Base to Ethereum for institutional clients.² In August 2026, Standard Chartered and HSBC completed the first live interbank tokenized deposit transaction on Swift's blockchain-based ledger.³ American Banker's Digital Asset Index found 24 of the 50 largest US banks with tokenized deposits on their agenda in Q2 2026, four of them running live products.⁴ Stablecoins add a further channel: McKinsey and Artemis estimated real stablecoin payments, excluding trading, at about $390bn a year at the end of 2025.⁵

Just as interesting as the volumes is how banks are doing it. They are not rebuilding their core systems. They connect to new rails through on-ramps and off-ramps, while the ledgers, accounts and controls they already rely on keep doing their job. In the Standard Chartered and HSBC transaction, the shared ledger matched and netted the obligations, and final settlement ran through the banks' existing systems.³

Regulation is catching up. The EU's MiCA rules for stablecoins have applied since June 2024.⁶ In the US, the GENIUS Act became law in July 2025, and the OCC issued its final implementing rule in October 2026, effective January 2027.⁷ The Basel cryptoasset standard, in force since January 2026, sets out how banks treat these exposures for capital.⁸ Tokenized assets are growing alongside: in October 2026, RWA.xyz tracked more than $420bn of real-world assets recorded on-chain, with private credit and treasuries among the largest categories.⁹

Trade finance is rich in use cases

Trade finance runs on documents, promises to pay and many parties who need to trust the same facts. That makes it a strong fit for tokenization, and the use cases build on one another.

Title documents: transfer and visibility. Electronic bills of lading (eBLs) and bills of exchange (eBoEs) create one digital original that only one party controls at a time, with a full history of who held it. In September 2026, Mauritius Commercial Bank and ETG, working with Enigio and Digital Trade Works, completed what they describe as Africa's first electronic bill of exchange under Mauritian law. Five bills were created in under 30 minutes and transferred to the bank in under an hour, against several days by courier.¹⁰ In June 2026, five eBL platforms adopted DCSA's interoperability annex, so an eBL no longer has to stay on the platform where it was issued.¹¹ A single controlled original also helps against fraud, because competing holders cannot present the same instrument.¹²

Purchase orders and invoices: multi-tier supply chain finance and fractionalization. Most supply chain finance today reaches only a buyer's direct suppliers. A tokenized, buyer-approved payment obligation can be split and passed down to second- and third-tier suppliers, each of whom can then finance their share against the buyer's credit. Linklogis, a Chinese supply chain finance provider that runs multi-tier platforms, has announced plans to tokenize trade receivables on a public ledger.¹³

Risk distribution: investors see what they fund. When trade assets are tokenized, investors can see the underlying transactions rather than a summary. BNY expects this could make trade assets easier to verify, transfer and distribute, widening the pool of capital available to trade.¹⁴

Programmable letters of credit. Further out, once documents, shipment events and payments are all digital, a letter of credit could largely run itself: checking conditions as events are recorded and triggering acceptance or payment without manual steps. This is the long-term prize, and each earlier step builds towards it.

Getting there: what it takes in practice

The opportunity is real, and so are the steps needed to reach it. Three matter most.

Legal frameworks and adoption come first. Thirteen jurisdictions have passed laws based on or influenced by UNCITRAL's Model Law on Electronic Transferable Records (MLETR).¹⁵ Yet DCSA estimates only about 11% of bills of lading were issued electronically in 2025.¹⁶ Trade crosses jurisdictions, legal systems and many counterparties, so adoption across that whole chain, more than the technology, will set the pace. The practical first step is to get eBLs and eBoEs working at scale, then build tokenized instruments on top. An electronic trade document is not automatically a token, but legally recognized digital originals create the foundation on which tokenized ownership, transfer and financing can be built.

A token does not change the instrument. Whether a receivable or a bill of exchange sits on paper, in a database or on a ledger, someone still has to book it, calculate interest and fees, track maturities, apply limits, assess risk, run compliance checks and report. Many banks still assume tokenization means replacing their core banking or trade platform. It doesn't. A tokenized instrument is a new instrument type on a new rail; the business logic that manages it stays the same.

The platform connects to the rail. The trade platform keeps handling origination, servicing, accounting, limits and reporting. Ledgers, wallets and settlement networks are run by specialist and regulated providers. An integration layer acts as the on-ramp and off-ramp: it receives a digital document or token from an external network, links it to the right transaction, exchanges status updates and returns the outcome to the books. When a tokenized asset arrives, the platform processes it as it would any other product.

A first step: connecting digital islands

This is already happening with digital documents. Finastra is working with global banks to connect digital-native trade documents to their corporate channel and to Trade Innovation in the back office. The exporter creates a digital bill of exchange, validates the document set and sends a single digital presentation to the bank, while control of the eBL moves through a title registry. The bank processes the presentation in Trade Innovation and passes it digitally to the importer's bank.

The same pattern applies to tokens. If the asset arriving from the network tomorrow is a tokenized receivable or bill rather than a digital document, the connection changes; the booking, servicing and risk logic does not.

What we recommend banks do now

• Digitalize first. Put eBLs and eBoEs into live use. They can reduce opportunities for duplicate presentation and shorten document-processing times today, with or without a token.
• Connect your trade platform to the networks. Make sure it can plug into document, title and settlement networks through an integration layer, so tokenized instruments become another rail rather than a rebuild.
• Decide which record governs what. Servicing, ownership and settlement may sit in different places. Establish which record governs each, and how discrepancies are resolved.
• Start with one transaction. One instrument, one corridor, one counterparty. Prove the operating model and then scale.

Where Finastra fits

We are optimistic about where tokenization will take trade finance, and practical about the route. Finastra does not aim to be the blockchain, wallet, custody or settlement provider. Our role is to keep Trade Innovation as the operational system that connects to whichever networks and providers banks choose. Through Trade Innovation Nexus it already connects to external networks, including Enigio's trace:original for digital originals, starting with guarantees, and CargoX for electronic trade documents.^17,18 The same architecture means Trade Innovation is ready to support tokenized instruments as an extension, built with customers as their programs require, without changing the core.

This is the first in a two-part series. In a forthcoming second installment, we’ll turn to lending and ask the same question: when assets move onto new rails, what really needs to change?

Sources

1. J.P. Morgan, Harvard Business School case study on Kinexys, 5 Aug 2026: https://www.jpmorgan.com/payments/newsroom/harvard-business-school-case-study-kinexys
2. The Block, "JPMorgan expands JPM Coin deposit token to Ethereum for institutional clients", 19 Oct 2026: https://www.theblock.co/news/business/2026-10-19-jpmorgan-jpm-coin-deposit-token-ethereum-418874
3. Standard Chartered, first live tokenised deposit transaction on Swift's blockchain-based ledger, 19 Aug 2026: https://www.sc.com/en/press-release/standard-chartered-and-hsbc-execute-first-live-tokenised-deposit-transaction-on-swifts-blockchain-based-ledger/
4. Tech Times, reporting American Banker Digital Asset Index (Q2 2026), 13 Aug 2026: https://www.techtimes.com/articles/324351/20260813/banks-rush-tokenize-deposits-stablecoin-networks-beat-them-shared-payment-rails.htm
5. McKinsey, "Stablecoins in payments: what the raw transaction numbers miss", Feb 2026: https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/financial-services/our-insights/stablecoins-in-payments-what-the-raw-transaction-numbers-miss
6. Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 on markets in crypto-assets (MiCA): https://eur-lex.europa.eu/eli/reg/2023/1114/oj
7. OCC Bulletin 2026-50, GENIUS Act Regulations: Final Rule, 21 Oct 2026: https://www.occ.gov/news-issuances/bulletins/2026/bulletin-2026-50.html
8. Basel Committee, SCO60 Cryptoasset exposures, in force 1 Jan 2026: https://www.bis.org/committees/bcbs/basel-framework/standard/sco/60/inforce/2026-01-01/published/2024-11-27
9. RWA.xyz, platforms view, Oct 2026: https://app.rwa.xyz/platforms
10. 1MCB, "Africa's First e-Bill of Exchange under Mauritian Law", 18 Sep 2026: https://mcb.mu/news/mcb-and-etg-turn-digital-trade-into-reality
11. DCSA, "Five eBL platforms adopt DCSA interoperability annex", 4 Jun 2026: https://dcsa.org/newsroom/five-ebl-platforms-adopt-dcsa-interoperability-annex
12. GTR, "Invoice registries key to fighting damaging trade finance fraud, ITFA says": https://www.gtreview.com/news/global/invoice-registries-key-to-fighting-damaging-trade-finance-fraud-itfa-says/
13. The Bamboo Works, "Linklogis deepens its blockchain bet", 11 Sep 2025: https://thebambooworks.com/linklogis-deepens-its-blockchain-bet-to-make-supply-chain-finance-great-again/
14. BNY, "Tokenization of Assets in Trade Finance", 12 Aug 2026: https://www.bny.com/corporate/global/en/insights/tokenization-assets-trade-finance.html
15. UNCITRAL, MLETR status: https://uncitral.un.org/en/texts/ecommerce/modellaw/electronic_transferable_records/status
16. DCSA, "Understanding soft barriers to digital adoption", 2025: https://dcsa.org/newsroom/understanding-soft-barriers-to-digital-adoption
17. Finastra, Enigio trace:original: https://www.finastra.com/applications/trace-original
18. Finastra, "Finastra teams with CargoX", Feb 2026: https://www.finastra.com/press-media/finastra-teams-cargox-further-adoption-digital-source-electronic-trade-documentation