Standard Chartered recently announced that they have signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with digital payments platform Tazapay which will help deliver digital escrow services to potential buyers and sellers who are looking to trade globally on Proxtra, a B2B marketplace.
This initiative is the bank’s first escrow-as-a-service (EaaS) offering and also this is the first time they are collaborating with Tazpay after they announced their partnership with Proxtra in February this year.
Back in 2018, the Monetary Authority of Singapore and the Infocomm Media Development Authority launched commercialisation of the Business without borders initiative. Proxtra was launched in 2020 with the aim to cut down the friction between cross-border trade, which is especially observed in small to medium-sized businesses.
Additionally, Tazpay was also launched in 2020 by former executives for well-renowned companies like Stripe, PayPal, Grab, and Standard Chartered. They have raised almost $5 million in funding from partners including Sequoia Capital India’s Surge, Saison Capital, RTP Global, and January Capital.
Under this latest agreement, Standard Chartered will help open the bank accounts required by Tazpay to receive and hold the escrow funds in both buyer’s market and escrow location. It will also enable the flow of funds to the sellers once Tazpay receives the confirmation of delivery from the concerned parties. Philip Panaino, Global Head of Cash Management, Transaction Banking, Standard Chartered, told the media, “We are excited to collaborate with Tazapay to democratise EaaS and enhance commercial trust between SMEs transacting on the Proxtera network. The MoU marks an important first step in our ambition to develop digital escrow as a universally trusted and accepted settlement method for trade and commerce, and demonstrates our ongoing commitment to enabling the sustainable development of SMEs, which are the drivers of economic growth and innovation in so many markets.”