ShipServ and MarTrust Partner to Simplify International Maritime Payments

ShipServ, the world's largest procurement platform for the marine industry, has entered into a close partnership with MarTrust, a Marcura Group company. MarTrust is a global payments provider focused entirely on the maritime industry. The aim of the partnership is to make it easier for ship operators and managers to vet suppliers and make international payments.

MarTrust can provide ShipServ customers with independent compliance checks, bank account vetting and validation, as well as process payments for the benefit of the 65,000 suppliers trading on the ShipServ platform. These due diligence and compliance checks are critical to processing the payments in accordance with increasingly complex financial regulations.

Combining MarTrust's and ShipServ's expertise will help shipping companies to avoid often lengthy due diligence enquiries from their banks that often cause delays or complications in the cross-border payment process, and also increase accounts department costs.

Kim Skaarup, Chief Operating Officer, ShipServ, commented:

"By collaborating with MarTrust, ShipServ is confident the required operational and financial due diligence checks are undertaken by trusted, independent maritime industry specialists that understand the pressures placed on owners and operators, and their need to make efficient, reliable and secure transactions worldwide. ShipServ's overall objective is to reduce OPEX for shipowners and managers and this new solution fits perfectly with that. In working together, we can now offer transaction efficiencies, as well as monitoring and analytics, through the entire end-to-end purchasing and procurement process. This solution is available now and in the future the partnership will look into developing additional advanced payments tools."

More than 200 shipowners and managers use ShipServ for their procurement of stores and spares and all suppliers can use the ShipServ platform free-of-charge, thereby providing a competitive marketplace for a wide range of relevant maritime goods and services.

Domenico Carlucci, Managing Director, MarTrust, commented on the collaboration:

"The problem for ship owners and managers is that their banks often do not have a thorough understanding of the maritime industry, or access to the relevant information or contacts to complete compliance checks quickly and accurately. As a result, these processes can end up being burdensome and costly for both the banks and more importantly for ship operators and ship management companies, which need to move quickly and take advantage of the most suitable offers from suppliers to manage operating costs. The truth is that the problems are not with the banks but the banks do find it extremely hard to manage the cost of compliance in the maritime space.

"MarTrust is the only financial services provider operating exclusively within the maritime industry, offering unparalleled industry insight and expertise. Our network and maritime specialism also means we have the ability to work more efficiently and with greater accuracy in vetting companies across the shipping supply chain."

Although an independent financial services provider, MarTrust works in close partnership with leading global financial institutions to make safe and efficient cross-border payments. In keeping with Marcura's operating principles, MarTrust discloses its costs, benchmarks its FX rates, and delivers savings to its customers while ensuring adherence to strict compliance standards.

MarTrust is part of The Marcura Group of maritime businesses, which includes DA-Desk, PortPoint, PortsDirect, CP-Desk, PortLog and MarDocs. The Group comprises over 600 employees across the globe.

The MarTrust services are offered in partnership with Paymaster (1836) Limited which is authorized by the Financial Conduct Authority under the Payment Services Regulations 2009 (FCA Reference Number 315407).