As global trade expands, trade finance is growing and evolving along with it. Most notably, the traditionally paper-based processes around trade finance are being pushed into the electronic age. Trade finance units are also dealing with new Basel III capital requirements, along with the rest of the banking industry. And trade finance methods are increasingly being used as part of companies' supply chain finance efforts.

A recent survey by Aite Group showed that while relatively few banks provide electronic interfaces for trade finance processes, more than three-quarters said they are seeing demand for electronic trade finance from their corporate clients.

One step in this direction is a relatively new instrument, the bank payment obligation (BPO), which replaces the paper documents that are the basis for letters of credit with data that moves between the buyer's and seller's banks.