BRAC Bank Modernizes Trade Finance with Finastra and Conpend AI Integration

BRAC Bank in Bangladesh has gone live with Finastra’s Trade Innovation and Corporate Channels, alongside Conpend’s Trade AI. For fintech professionals, this represents a significant shift toward digitizing trade finance in emerging markets, replacing fragmented manual processes with an integrated platform to improve straight-through processing and meet evolving global standards like ISO 20022.

What was announced

BRAC Bank has implemented a suite of digital tools to modernize its trade finance operations. The deployment includes Finastra's Trade Innovation and Corporate Channels, integrated with Conpend’s Trade AI. This move is designed to create a more connected environment for the bank’s corporate clients by streamlining workflows and increasing visibility across the trade finance lifecycle. The platform provides a single channel for corporate clients to initiate requests, collaborate securely, and track transactions in real time.

From a technical standpoint, the implementation supports compliance with upcoming industry mandates, specifically ISO 20022 and Swift SR2026 requirements. By moving away from fragmented legacy systems, the bank aims to increase straight-through processing (STP) and establish a scalable architecture capable of handling growing trade volumes in Bangladesh. The open architecture of the Finastra solutions allows for the adoption of future technologies as business needs evolve, while the AI component from Conpend focuses on automating document checking and compliance tasks within the trade workflow. This integration allows for faster deployment of new services while maintaining governance and oversight for corporate clients.

"This implementation marks an important milestone in our trade finance transformation. By digitizing and streamlining trade operations, we are enhancing transparency, control and efficiency across the trade finance lifecycle, enabling us to serve our corporate clients with greater speed and reliability. This advanced trade solutions brings us closer to our ambition of becoming the most preferred trade bank in Bangladesh by consistently delivering superior value to our customers,"

Tareq Refat Ullah Khan, Managing Director & CEO at BRAC Bank PLC.

The companies involved

BRAC Bank is a leading private commercial bank in Bangladesh. It operates as an independent entity focused on providing a wide range of banking services to both individual and corporate clients in the region. Finastra, the technology provider for this implementation, is a global leader in financial services software. Based in London, the company is owned by Vista Equity Partners. Finastra was formed through the merger of Misys and D+H, and it currently serves a vast majority of the world's top banks. The company provides a broad portfolio of solutions across lending, payments, treasury, and retail banking. In the trade finance sector, Finastra’s "Trade Innovation" platform is a core offering used by institutions globally to manage complex trade instruments. By partnering with third-party fintechs like Conpend through its open platform approach, Finastra integrates specialized AI capabilities into its core banking software, allowing banks like BRAC Bank to access advanced automation without building bespoke integrations from scratch.

What FF News has reported before

Finastra has maintained a high level of activity in the trade and payments space throughout late 2026. FF News recently covered how Finastra StandbyX Launches to Help U.S. Banks Digitize Standby Letter of Credit Processing, highlighting a similar push toward automation in the North American market. In September, the company also introduced an AI-Powered Supply Chain Finance Solution to Accelerate Bank Working Capital Growth. Beyond trade, Finastra’s broader market position was recognized when it was Named 2026 Leader in QKS Group’s Integrated Bank Payments Platform SPARK Matrix. Additionally, the firm has been expanding its ecosystem through partnerships, such as when Finastra and Komgo Partner to Streamline Digital Trade Finance Workflows, demonstrating a consistent strategy of integrating specialized fintech tools into its core offerings.

What this means

This deployment highlights the increasing pressure on regional banks in emerging markets to match the digital capabilities of global tier-one institutions. As Bangladesh’s trade volumes grow, manual processing becomes a bottleneck that threatens competitiveness. By adopting AI-driven document checking and ISO 20022-compliant systems, BRAC Bank is effectively future-proofing its operations against upcoming Swift mandates. For the wider industry, this move signals that "open finance" is no longer just a retail banking trend; it is becoming the standard for corporate trade. The integration of third-party AI like Conpend into a core Finastra platform suggests that traditional vendors are successfully pivoting toward an ecosystem model to keep pace with agile fintech challengers.