Agentic trade finance

Between the trade and the bank.

Trades live in your CTRM, cash in your TMS, credit with your banks. Fontego runs the financing process that connects them, with AI agents doing the work, inside your treasury policy.

Request a demo See how it works
The gap

Three systems. One process nobody owns.

Financing a cargo means answering a simple question: which bank, which line, at what cost, within policy? The answer is scattered across systems that never talk to each other. So it runs on e-mail, bank portals and a spreadsheet called v7_final.

CTRMTrades live here: contracts, purchases and sales, logistics.
TMSCash lives here: liquidity, payments, bank positions.
BANKSCredit lives here: facilities, limits, drawdowns, repayments.
facilities_v7_final.xlsx
BankLimitUsedAll-in
Rhone40.0M35.0M?5.5%
Delta80.0M25.0M#REF!
Conti50.0M8.0M5.8%
Cheapest line with headroom today?
Inbox
Delta RM · RE: utilisation?
Treasury · FW: Conti limits
Continental TF · Fee schedule 2026
The house in between

Fontego connects your systems to your banks, and runs the financing between them.

Your CTRM and TMS stay where they are. Fontego sits in the middle, with AI agents that do the work and your treasury policy as the rulebook.

Your systemsCTRM · TMS

Contracts, purchases and sales, cash positions

FontegoThe financing process, run by AI agents
  • Facility evaluation
  • Funding requests
  • Documents and collateral
  • Maturities
  • Treasury policy
  • Audit trail
Your banksFacilities

Limits, drawdowns, repayments

4specialist AI agents on the financing process
8stage financing workflow, from request to repayment
15ready-made reports for treasury, trading and audit
100%of decisions stored with inputs, policy and reasons
Figures describe the Fontego prototype and demo data.
How it works

From a received cargo to a closed loan.

One financing workspace for the whole life of a trade. Follow a single purchase contract through Fontego.

01

Connect

Contracts flow in from your CTRM. No re-keying, no screenshots in e-mails.

  • Purchase and sale contracts synced automatically
  • Bulk CSV import with validation when you need it
  • Purchases paired with their sales, one to many
02

Evaluate

Before looking at banks, Fontego checks whether you need one at all, then whether the deal is allowed.

  • Self-funding check against your cash and policy window
  • Hard gates: FATF country list and sanctions screening
  • Every facility and sub-limit ranked by all-in cost and headroom
03

Recommend

The matching and funding agents propose which facilities fund the request, and by how much.

  • Split across facilities when one line is not enough
  • Plain-language reasoning for every gate and ranking
  • Bank relationship priority applied, as your treasury sets it
04

Decide

Agents propose. People decide. Accept, edit, override or reject, with a reason on record.

  • Approval reserves facility utilisation immediately
  • Every override and rework step is kept
  • Closed requests become read-only
05

Present and settle

The bank pack is built from the trade itself, then tracked through to settlement.

  • Cover letter, bank message and trade documents generated
  • Document checks against the contract and the bank's checklist
  • Submission, bank response, drawdown, settlement and repayment
06

Watch

Nothing matures in silence. Nothing drifts out of limit unnoticed.

  • Maturity agent alerts you before repayment dates
  • Forward headroom forecast from maturities and pipeline
  • Realised financing cost compared with the indicative one
Contracts / Trade Finance Kanban

Prefinance · 3 facilities · 8 not matched

Synced from the CTRM at 08:02
ContractStageValue
PC-8-HALReceived$26.72MNot matched
PC-2-HALTransit in-land$26.00MFinanced
PC-1-HALIn store$—Repaid
Matching agent
PC-8-HAL paired with 4 sales. Suggested facility: DELTA 2026 · Prefinance · 5.60% all-in.
Funding request / Evaluation

PC-8-HAL · funding need 26.72M

Gates run before any bank is ranked
Self-funding windowExternal funding needed
FATF country listClear
Sanctions screeningClear
Max debt funding ratioWithin cap
Facility ranking3 facilities · 15 sub-limits
Funding request / Match and recommend

Recommended split

Illustrative demo data
FacilityAmountAll-in
RHONE 2026 · Prefinance5.00M5.53%
DELTA 2026 · Prefinance21.72M5.60%
Blended26.72M5.59%
Reasoning
Rhone ranks first on cost but has only 5.0M headroom. The remainder goes to Delta, the treasury's priority bank, 55.0M available.
Funding request / Decision

Your call

Recommendation by the funding agent · policy: Financing Policy 2026
Reserve facility utilisationOn approval
Reason required to reject or amendRecorded
ApproveEdit splitOverrideReject
Presentation / Stages

Financing presentation · DELTA 2026

Bank-ready pack built from the trade
1Prepare
2Approve
3Submit
4Bank response
5Drawdown
6Settlement
7Repayment
8Closed
Document agent
3 documents checked and filed. 1 exception: BL SC-84-HAL port differs. Review.
Reports / Forward headroom

Headroom over time

From maturities and pipeline · illustrative
Maturity agent
PC-2-HAL · DELTA 2026 matures in 5 days. Alert sent to the trader and treasury, contract and repayment amount attached. Roll over or repay?
The agents

A team that works before you log in.

Four specialists, each with one job. They rank, match, read and watch. Humans stay in charge of the decisions.

Facility agent

Scores every line on capacity, all-in cost, tenor and eligibility, then applies your bank priority. Warns when a limit is getting close.

Matching agent

Pairs each purchase with its sales, proposes the facility, and opens the funding request ready for treasury.

Document agent

Checks bills of lading, warrants and haircuts against the contract and the bank's checklist. Only the exceptions reach a person.

Maturity agent

Watches every drawn loan. When a repayment date approaches, the right people hear first, with the context attached.

Agent activity · this morning

Facility agent3 facilities re-ranked
Matching agentPC-8-HAL paired with 4 sales
Document agentBL SC-84-HAL port differs, sent for review
Maturity agentPC-2-HAL due in 5 days, alert sent to trader and treasury
Who it serves

Three roles. One financing process.

The CFO needs an answer. The trader needs funding. The analyst needs the paper chase to stop. Fontego gives each of them the same version of the truth.

Portrait of a CFO in a trading-floor office

Claire Vasseur

Chief Financial Officer · Halden Commodities AG
Headroom visibilityCost of fundsBank concentration
Before · Monday, 8:00

Three banks, three portals, one spreadsheet.

Claire wants a simple answer: where can we draw today, at what cost, without breaking policy?

With Fontego · one ranked view

Every line scored. Policy applied.

The facility agent scores each line on capacity, all-in cost, tenor and eligibility, then applies the treasury's bank priority. Rhone ranks first at 5.53%.

With Fontego · ahead of the limit

The warning arrives before the problem.

Rhone is 87.5% used. The agent flags that the next large draw goes to Delta for 7 basis points more, and Delta is the treasury's first-priority bank.

Portrait of a senior commodity trader at his desk

Marco Keller

Senior Trader · Halden Commodities AG
Speed to fundingMatching purchases and salesLoan maturities
Before · day 3

The cargo has landed. The funding hasn't.

PC-8-HAL is in store: 26.72M of product. Funding sits in an e-mail thread between Marco, treasury and two banks.

With Fontego · requested and tracked

One click from contract to funding request.

Contracts synced from the CTRM appear on the Trade Finance Kanban by financing stage. The matching agent pairs the purchase with its sales and proposes a facility. Marco presses Match and the request opens, ready for treasury.

With Fontego · no silent maturities

He hears first.

The maturity agent watches every drawn loan. When a repayment date approaches, Marco and treasury are told first, with the contract and facility attached.

Portrait of a trade finance analyst at her desk with shipping documents

Léa Brunner

Trade Finance Analyst · Halden Commodities AG
Manual reconciliationDocument chasingExplaining decisions
Before · the paper chase

Mornings lost to originals.

Bills of lading, warrants, insurance certificates. Léa chases originals and re-keys quantities into spreadsheets.

With Fontego · read, checked, filed

Only the exceptions reach her.

The document agent reads each bill of lading, checks quantity and port against the contract, and brings only the exceptions to Léa.

With Fontego · every decision explained

When the auditor asks why, the answer is written.

Each ranking and each funding choice is stored with its inputs, the policy version and the reasons.

Composite profiles at Halden Commodities AG, a fictional trading house. All figures are illustrative demo data.

Control and trust

Agents propose. You stay in control.

Credit decisions need accountability. Fontego is built so that every recommendation can be explained, challenged and audited.

  • Your policy is the rulebookSelf-funding windows, debt ratio caps, bank priority, FATF and sanctions gates are rules you configure, and the agents obey them.
  • Human validation on every decisionAccept, edit, override or reject. Reasons are required and recorded.
  • Explained, never a black boxStep-by-step reasoning for every gate and ranking, in plain language.
  • Ready for audit by defaultRole-based access, a full action history and a utilisation trail that reconciles.
Decision record

1 · Rhone Trade Bank · RHONE 2026

Rationale
Ranked #1: all-in 5.53% on Prefinance; committed; treasury priority 2; first on all-in cost; headroom 5.0M.
Policy
Halden Financing Policy 2026
As of
10/13/2026
Inputs
3 facilities · 15 sub-limits
Decided by
Facility agent, approved by treasury
Inside the product

Everything the financing desk touches.

From the first contract to the CFO's morning brief, in one workspace.

Trade Finance Kanban

A facility by sub-limit board showing financed contracts and exposure by stage.

Purchase and sale matching

Link one purchase to many sales, with open balances derived for you.

Forward headroom forecast

How much room you will have, week by week, from maturities and pipeline.

What-if placement simulator

Slide amount and tenor and watch the facilities re-rank live, with the split and the cost delta.

Savings ticker

What each decision saved against the most expensive eligible line, and year to date.

Daily treasury brief

One click for the morning note: headroom by bank, next maturities, near-limit alerts, actions.

Ask Fontego

Ask in plain words: where can we place 15M for 120 days? Answers cite their sources.

Bank-ready pack

One PDF: summary, cover letter, checklist status and a page per document. Or send it by e-mail.

Compliance gates

FATF country list and sanctions screening as hard gates, shown beside the reasoning.

Where it fits

Start with one desk. Expand when the value is clear.

Fontego works alongside your CTRM and TMS rather than replacing them. A pilot begins with one desk, its facilities and its live trades.

Discuss a pilot
Commodity vessel at a port terminal at golden hour
The story behind the name

Venice trusted one house to stand between foreign merchants and its markets.

Fontego is the Venetian word for fondaco, the trading house. In 1228 Venice gave German merchants a single building beside the Rialto: the Fondaco dei Tedeschi. Eight centuries later, the idea still works.

GIORGIONE · TITIAN · 1508 CANAL GRANDE · RIALTO COURTYARDcortile LODGING · ALLOGGIWAREHOUSES · MAGAZZINIOFFICIALSvisdominiBROKERSsensali GOODS ARRIVE BY WATER 123 1 STORE · 2 REGISTER & TAX · 3 SELL VIA BROKER GOODS · DOCUMENTS · MONEY · RULESFONTEGO

Stylised illustration.

The Fondaco dei Tedeschi on the Grand Canal, Venice
Then and nowVenice, 1508Fontego, today
The courtyardWhere every trade metcortileOne financing workspaceContracts from the CTRM, cash from the TMS, facilities from the banks
The officialsGoods registered, duties collectedvisdominiControl agentsEligibility, limits and treasury policy checked on every draw
Sworn brokersEvery deal witnessedsensaliMatching and funding agentsContracts paired, each request routed to the right facility
WarehousesGoods stored and weighedmagazziniDocument and collateral agentsBills of lading, warrants and haircuts read and checked
The registerNothing moved without a recordAudit trailEvery decision stored with its inputs and reasons
1228

One building beside the Rialto

Venice gives German merchants a single house for trade.

1508

Trust made visible

Rebuilt around an arcaded courtyard. Giorgione and Titian paint the façades.

Today

Trust made auditable

Trade has always run on trust. Fontego makes it visible again.

Historical summary simplified for illustration.

Next step

Put Fontego between your trades and your banks.

A 30-minute walkthrough of facility evaluation and the Trade Finance Kanban, on demo data.

Request a demo Discuss a pilot

Book a demo

See facility evaluation, matching and the decision record on demo data.

demo@fontego.com →

Start a pilot

Begin with one desk, its facilities and its live trades. Expand once the value is clear.

demo@fontego.com →