A collection of top physical commodities firms and financial institutions, supported by technology giant Accenture, today announced plans to explore launching Forcefield, a pioneering inventory management system focused on implementing blockchain, Internet of Things (IoT) sensors, and near-field communication (NFC) chips to securely and efficiently manage the post-trade processing of commodity transactions.

Accenture, ABN Amro, Anglo American, CMST International,  Hartree Partners, ING Bank, Mercuria and OCBC Bank, are amongst those that have so far signed up to the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU).

“Forcefield has been designed by market experts to address common industry pain points in a targeted manner,” said Mark Bradley, who has been co-ordinating Forcefield on behalf of the consortium members. “The full supply chain is represented in the product design by incorporating input from existing, and pipeline, consortium members and users.”

Forcefield is an innovative digital platform which manages commodities throughout the entire supply chain life-cycle. The system enhances the security of title and the efficiency of related processes to reduce both risks and costs of handling physical inventory. Forcefield uses traceability as a sustainable sourcing tool to help the supply chain monitor provenance and attestations throughout the product life-cycle. Forcefield is a global tool reflective of both the industry it represents and the global constitution of the consortium members. Forcefield will be open and inclusive to all market participants in order to drive mass adoption.

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“We have seen in other sectors of the commodity industry the power of market participants applying innovative technology to solve for unnecessary friction costs and inefficiencies,” said Marco Dunand, co-founder and CEO of Mercuria. “Forcefield’s focus on securing inventory should promote industry growth to the benefit of all in the supply chain while also allowing a platform for senior industry players to drive forward the important environmental, social, and governance agenda.”

Forcefield has been funded and developed for the past 12 months as a stand-alone product moving through the successful proof of concept phase with Accenture as the technology provider. Following several cycles of development, Forcefield formed as an independent company to finalise the platform deployment and operate as a market utility. The system will initially focus on refined metals but functionality will be expanded across other dry bulk commodities.

SOURCE Forcefield