Re-export settlement has long been stuck on letters of credit: issue, present, examine, accept — a loop that takes three to five business days. A back-to-back LC is also a bank high-attention structure (F9), where every leg needs bill-of-lading verification plus independent inspection.

Encoding "title transfer" as an on-chain smart-contract escrow with conditional payment can replace roughly a quarter of the LC workflow. The conditions are hard rules: the bill-of-lading hash goes on chain, the inspection report hash goes on chain, funds are escrowed in the contract, and only when all three agree does release happen. Funds and cargo flow close within two hours; the bank lends against the on-chain state, and settlement drops from T+3 to T+0.

SNSUC's seven-grade re-export chain (ESPO, Dubai, Oman, Urals, Basrah Light, Bonny Light, Lula) all fit this: lock the STS destination before the LC opens (F7), then wire the title state machine into the contract. The origin country veto (F8) becomes a precondition check — Iranian cargo is rejected outright.

Mind the boundary: escrow replaces "trust plus process," not "credit." The bank still lends on customer due diligence; the chain only hardens the evidence trail and cuts manual reconciliation.