The Digital Container Shipping Association (DCSA) has introduced a digital tool aimed to improve business identity verification across the shipping and logistics sectors.
Known as Identity Exchange, the new system is intended to address the repeated compliance and know your customer (KYC) procedures that organisations commonly perform when establishing new partnerships in global trade.
According to DCSA, these existing processes can be slow, inconsistent, and costly, and may introduce risk to the supply chain.
Identity Exchange serves as a platform that supplies verified company data, allowing organisations to access up-to-date information for due diligence purposes.
DCSA noted that the solution achieved a 95% success rate in delivering verified company data during its initial use.
This performance is cited as evidence of its potential to strengthen compliance efforts and expedite the partner onboarding process.
DCSA chief product officer Niels Nuyens said: “Identity Exchange reflects DCSA’s broader role in driving the industry’s digital transformation. Standards remain fundamental to this mission, but achieving true digitalisation demands stronger digital infrastructure.
“We are proud to deliver DCSA’s first product, one that enhances daily operations and builds on the foundation the industry needs to digitalise effectively at scale.”
The development of Identity Exchange involved collaboration with both DCSA’s founding member carriers and sector partners.
The association views this cooperative approach as crucial in ensuring the system aligns with operational requirements within container trade.
The product is now available via web interface and API integration. Organisations interested in evaluating Identity Exchange can access it through a limited trial period, according to DCSA.
Ongoing revenue from such offerings contributes to the association’s efforts to develop open standards and solutions for the container shipping industry.
Commenting on the product, DCSA member ZIM Global Customer Service Directorate traffic manager Yossi Bar, and business and documentation supervisor Missy Barron said: “The Identity Exchange Platform supports our strategy to continue and provide excellent service to our customers while ensuring our compliance with international regulations and sanctions.”
In June this year, the Global Shipping Business Network (GSBN) announced that IQAX became the first company to incorporate the DCSA electronic Bill of Lading (eBL) API schema version 3.0.
