POSCO International, LG CNS, and Innovative
3 Company Completion of Blockchain Trade Finance PoC
Real-time Sharing of Transaction Information and Assetization of Sales Claims

A view of POSCO International Songdo office building. [Photo = POSCO International] 사진 확대 A view of POSCO International Songdo office building. [Photo = POSCO International]

Payment delays and operational risks, which were caused by repeated confirmation work and document errors at the global trade site, are expected to be greatly resolved through artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain technology.

POSCO International, a general company, announced on the 17th that it has completed a trade finance infrastructure technology verification (PoC) that applies blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI) technology to the actual global trading environment with LG CNS and Global Mainnet Injective.

This PoC focused on verifying whether it is applicable to actual trade work in three key areas: ▲ real-time sharing of transaction information ▲ digital assetization of accounts receivable ▲ automation of AI-based trade documents.

First of all, the three companies have established an infrastructure that shares distributed transaction information between headquarters, overseas subsidiaries, and trading partners in real time based on the blockchain co-director.

In the existing trade business, transaction information was managed individually by country and corporation, so repetitive dialogue work was essential for each contract and settlement process.

However, by applying the co-director-based structure, all participants can check the transaction status at the same time, dramatically reducing operational risks caused by information inconsistency and laying the foundation for increasing contract and settlement efficiency.

In particular, the area where the industry’s attention is focused is the real-linked assets (RWA) area based on accounts receivable. The demonstration team closely examined the structure that allows trade receivables arising from actual trade transactions to be issued, transferred, and settled on the blockchain network.

This RWA verification was conducted on the Injective Chain, a global blockchain main net specialized in the corporate financial environment. Beyond simple asset issuance, strict control functions required by corporate finance have also been built directly into the chain.

The “white list” that restricts addresses that can hold assets, “role separation” that grants issuance and repayment rights only to specific subjects, and “freeze” function that immediately stops transactions of specific addresses in the event of a problem were implemented in an on-chain environment.

This control function does not rely on a separate external policy document, but is built into the asset code itself, so the blockchain automatically rejects it in the event of a transaction attempt that violates the regulations.

Injective recently unveiled “Injective Mint,” a no-code issuing platform that can configure such control functions without writing complex codes, in a private beta, laying the groundwork for the verified structure to spread to more financial institutions and companies in the future.

Generative AI technology was actively used in the process of reviewing trade documents. The demonstration team introduced an “AI agent” that automatically reads documents and identifies errors in the L/C and trade documents review process.

In trade practice, where documents and procedures required by countries or customers vary widely, simple typos or omission of provisions can lead to huge delays in payment.

Empirical results demonstrate that by deploying AI agents in the pre-review stage, quality deviations due to differences in skills of the person in charge can be eliminated and human errors and potential trading risks can be identified early

“This PoC is meaningful in that it has verified the applicability of AI and blockchain technology based on data and processes at actual trade sites,” a POSCO International official said. “We plan to specify pilot operation plans in the second half of this year and apply them to the actual business environment step by step, focusing on areas where operational efficiency has been confirmed.”

“Injective is a chain designed to allow regulated financial assets to operate on-chain, and demonstration of the same scale as this PoC is an area that Injective was created to handle in the first place,” said Andrew Kang, CEO of Injective Korea. “The PoC shows the possibility of Korean corporate finance’s on-chain transformation beyond an example in that the same infrastructure can be applied to all asset groups that need regulation, such as government bonds, funds, and deposit tokens, starting with sales bonds.” The three companies plan to promote phased commercialization with the aim of applying the actual business environment in the future.