# Trade finance operations review for banks: the TRACE framework > A trade finance operations review for banks: an agreed baseline, findings across the five TRACE pillars and a phased roadmap. From former bankers and system specialists. URL: https://www.venzotechnologies.com/process-re-engineering ## Operations Review, built on TRACE The pressures a head of trade operations faces: - Volumes are growing. Headcount can’t. - Cost-income targets land on operations. - Audit keeps raising the same findings. - New joiners need to be productive fast. - Corporates still send email and paper. - The board wants an AI plan. - Modernise, optimise or replace the platform? Not every improvement needs a transformation programme. Pressures like these trace back to five areas, and the TRACE framework finds the fix that counts. ## What we improve: the TRACE framework Five things every trade operations head is measured on. - **T: Team & organisation** (Right roles, right capacity). Is the team organised around the work, and who holds the know-how? A team organised around the work: clear roles, capacity matched to volume, and know-how not locked in a few senior people. Measured by: capacity vs volume, role design, key-person dependency, training coverage. - **R: Risk & controls** (Lower risk exposure). Which controls rely on people and email? Stronger controls, better evidence, lower compliance exposure. Measured by: evidence completeness, screening timing, audit findings. - **A: Automation & STP** (More straight-through). What could run straight through, and what must be true before AI? More straight-through processing. AI prepares, people decide. Measured by: STP, re-keying, exceptions. - **C: Client experience & growth** (Better client experience). Why do corporates still send email and paper? Faster turnaround for clients, channels they actually use, and capacity turned into income. Measured by: digital reach, fee capture, client turnaround. - **E: Efficiency** (Lower unit cost). Where does cost sit, and why does it rise with volume? Simpler hand-offs, approvals and procedures: less effort and rework, with no system change. Measured by: unit cost, touch time, rework. Every finding is filed under one of the five, so trade-offs sit in one place. ## What you receive Start with the facts. Leave with a plan you can defend. 1. **Baseline:** How the work actually moves today, agreed with your teams. Volumes, touch time, waiting points, rework and where the expertise sits, product by product. 2. **Findings:** By TRACE pillar, each rated for priority and effort. Team, risk, automation, client and efficiency: one finding, one TRACE pillar. Each lands on a lever below. 3. **Quick wins:** Separated from the strategic choices. Worth doing whatever the future operating model. 4. **Roadmap:** A target operating model, phased with decision gates. Choices on AI, STP, channels, team structure and skills, new platforms and technology upgrades, set out. 5. **Decisions:** The measures and calls needed to run it as a programme. Measures for each TRACE pillar, tracked from the baseline. Where recommendations land: - **Platform optimisation:** More from the system you have: configuration, workflow and integration. - **Process improvements:** Procedures, hand-offs and controls, independent of any system change. - **People and organisation:** Roles, team structure, training and capacity planning, so expertise isn’t held by a few. - **External solutions:** Gaps neither can close, framed for your own evaluation. ## How the review works 1. **Questionnaires:** Processes, volumes, platform use and known issues, before we arrive. 2. **Live observation:** We trace live transactions desk by desk, beside makers, checkers and approvers. 3. **Focused sessions:** Credit, risk, financial crime and compliance, relationship management and sales, and operations leads on team structure, capacity and skills. 4. **Baseline, then recommendations:** Agreed with you before we recommend anything. Across guarantees, import and export LCs, collections, clean payments and reimbursements, document checking and digital channels. **One workflow language.** Every product mapped in the same three stages, so findings compare across the book. Not a system audit. Not an assessment of individuals. ## Trade Ops Health Check Ten signs worth a closer look. - Nobody can say quickly where a transaction is. Usual cause: No single case or end-to-end status across channels. (E: Efficiency) - Applications, MT700s and document data are re-keyed, and repairs are routine. Usual cause: Channels not integrated; capture and validation rules never tuned. (A: Automation & STP) - Discrepancy calls rest on a few senior checkers. Usual cause: UCP 600 and ISBP practice lives in people, not rules or checklists. (T: Team & organisation) - Sanctions and dual-use hits hold transactions for hours or days. Usual cause: Screening timing and clearing weren’t designed around trade flows. (R: Risk & controls) - Audit findings keep returning to evidence, approvals or screening. Usual cause: Controls sit in people and email. (R: Risk & controls) - Corporates still send most requests by email or paper. Usual cause: The portal isn’t easier than email. (C: Client experience & growth) - Work is tracked in spreadsheets and shared mailboxes beside the core system. Usual cause: Workflow and reporting features under-used or misconfigured. (A: Automation & STP) - Volume growth has only ever been met with headcount. Usual cause: The process wasn’t redesigned, so unit cost rises with volume. (E: Efficiency) - A platform decision is being made without a baseline. Usual cause: Framed around the system, not the operating model. (E: Efficiency) - AI document checking is being pitched, with no view of where it pays off. Usual cause: Use cases not tied to a baseline, or to what must be true first. (A: Automation & STP) Take it on the page: https://www.venzotechnologies.com/process-re-engineering#health-check ## Engagement - **Scope:** The whole trade and SCF operation, end to end, across products, channels and control functions. Duration and fee are agreed with you. - **From your side:** A sponsor, time with the people who run and govern the work, and access to live transactions. - **Starts from your operation:** Recommendations follow from your baseline and your live transactions, not from a system. Led by former bankers who ran trade operations and specialists who implemented the systems behind them. ## What a client says > “Their deep, hands-on experience with different operational models and global system implementations is unmatched. Unlike big-name consultants who lack real domain expertise, Venzo’s team knows the nuances of trade finance inside and out.” > > Mohanakrishnan Kaimveetil, Ex Head of Trade Operations, Emirates NBD ## Talk to us Start with an agreed baseline. Tell us the products in scope and what’s driving the question. A trade finance specialist will reply, not a sales team. We usually reply within 24 hours. [Contact Venzo](https://www.venzotechnologies.com/contact-us?topic=operations-review)