ENTRY 01
The Problem
The payment that comes back to haunt you
A legitimate cross-border trade payment goes out. The business moves on. Months later, a bank or a regulator asks the sender to explain that transaction — and if a clean answer doesn't exist, the money doesn't come back.
R35m
Seized from 7 organisations in 9 days.
South African Reserve Bank, May 2026
R6bn+
Forfeited by Steinhoff — the largest SARB forfeiture on record.
SARB forfeiture order, July 2024
It happens at every scale — from first-time exporters to the largest corporates.
ENTRY 02
Why This Happens — Part 1
Rails, explained
A cross-border payment travels through a chain of correspondent banks to get from your bank to the recipient's. Each hop is built to move an amount, reliably, from one account to another.
Your BankOrigin
→
Correspondent BankHop 1
→
Correspondent BankHop 2
→
Recipient's BankDestination
Each hop moves money. None carry the reason why. The rails move value — they don't move meaning.
ENTRY 02.2
Why This Happens — Part 2
ISO 20022, explained
ISO 20022 is the industry's emerging global standard for payment messaging. Instead of a bare amount and reference, it carries structured, richer data with the payment itself. The fix already exists at the standards level — the gap is who's actually building on it for corridors like these.
Legacy Message
Amount: $48,200
Beneficiary: Acme Trading Ltd
Ref: INV-2291
That's it. No purpose, no documentation.
ISO 20022 Message
Amount: $48,200
Beneficiary: Acme Trading Ltd
Ref: INV-2291
Purpose: Goods — Trade
Invoice: Attached
Counterparty: Verified
ENTRY 03
How Leja Works
Trust, built into the payment itself
Three mechanisms work together so every transaction is self-documenting by design — not reconstructed after the fact.
Mechanism 01 · Core
Tranches
Trade payments don't have to be a single leap of faith. Documentary collection structures release funds in stages, tied to verified trade documents.
D/P — Documents Against Payment: the buyer must pay before receiving shipping documents.
D/A — Documents Against Acceptance: the buyer commits to a future payment date to receive documents.
Mechanism 02 · Settlement
Blockchain settlement
One tool in the stack — not the headline. Stellar-based settlement gives Leja two practical things, kept deliberately simple.
Speed — funds move across borders in minutes, not days.
Immutability — nothing can be quietly edited or deleted.
Mechanism 03 · Messaging
ISO 20022, native
Every transaction is recorded with structured, standards-based data from the moment it's created — not bolted on for compliance later.
Built in — purpose codes, invoice references and verified counterparty data travel with the payment, automatically.
ENTRY 04
The Payoff
Before Leja / After Leja
Same SME. Same transaction. A different ending.
| Before Leja | After Leja |
|---|
| Context lives in an email |
Context travels with the payment |
| One lump-sum transfer |
Funds release in stages |
| Compliance call — no warning |
Proof already attached |
| Scrambling for proof |
Answered in minutes |
| Penalty deducted |
No penalty |
ENTRY 05
Where We Start
Built for global trade
Leja's architecture isn't specific to any one trade lane — it's built for global trade. The active go-live focus is Africa-to-Africa corridors, settled via Yellow Card's Convert Fiat Currency rail, with more currency pairs added as each is live-verified. The original India-origination corridors are built, working and available — held for when that origination pipeline reopens.
LIVE FOCUS
ZAR → MWK
South Africa – Malawi
LIVE FOCUS
NGN → KES
Nigeria – Kenya
AVAILABLE
INR → NGN
India – Nigeria
AVAILABLE
INR → KES
India – Kenya
AVAILABLE
INR → AED
India – UAE
The destination is global. Africa-to-Africa is where the model is live today — not the ceiling.
ENTRY 06
Proof
Built for compliance — at every scale
So the call from the bank never comes — whether you're an SME raising your first letter of credit, or a multinational corporate moving billions across borders.
✓
Sanctions screening
Every counterparty checked before funds move.
✓
Fragmentation monitoring
Automated alerts on structuring patterns across daily, weekly and monthly windows.
✓
Immutable ledger
Append-only — full audit trail, always.
ENTRY 07
The Path Forward
Roadmap
Each phase unlocks new capability.
PHASE 0
Foundation
Core ledger and compliance engine live.
PHASE 1
Corridor coverage
Full corridor coverage, tranche settlement live.
PHASE 2
Self-service
Self-service onboarding at scale.
PHASE 3
RWA tokenisation
Real-world asset tokenisation.
Built on learnings from an early prototype,
Easy-Remit.