HSBC pioneers new digital ‘fast-track’ trade finance demand guarantee
HSBC has launched a pioneering new ‘fast-track’ digital trade finance demand guarantee to help customers trade internationally in a more seamless, secure and efficient way.
The solution allows customers to issue digitally processed guarantees that can be issued to a beneficiary in real time, reducing issuance times from a typical 3-4 days, down to potentially minutes, marking a significant milestone for the banking industry.
The ‘fast-track’ digitally processed trade finance guarantee will be available to customers via HSBC Trade Solutions, the bank’s world-leading trade finance platform set up to digitise and simplify customer journeys, which is being deployed globally in 2024 and 2025.
The first transactions of this kind took place at the start of the month, with HSBC issuing an Advance Payment guarantee for UK international corporate Russell Finex Ltd and a Tender Bond for the consultancy and accounting firm KPMG in Qatar.
Stephanie Betant, head of trade and receivable finance at HSBC UK, said: “At HSBC UK we understand how critical the digitisation of world trade is becoming for businesses. We’ve taken advantage of our global network to develop an innovative technology solution which makes paperless trade a reality for our customers.
“We have worked closely with our customers to understand their needs and designed a game-changing ‘fast-track’ digital trade finance guarantee which reduces delivery times from days to minutes.”
Commenting, Russell Finex Ltd, said: “This guarantee enabled a key contract to be realised, provisioning cutting-edge sieving and filtration technology to support the processing of chemicals for the customer.”
“Given no manufacturing can start until the guarantee is in place this enhancement supports working capital optimisation and presents growth opportunities based on the timely finalisation of all contractual obligations”
Demand guarantees and documentary trade solutions support businesses trading across the world by mitigating risk and providing confidence to both buyers and suppliers.
Digitally processed guarantees are one of several ground-breaking solutions that HSBC is delivering to facilitate the move towards the digitisation of trade, and support clients in preparation for a digital future.
Earlier this year, the bank launched HSBC TradePay, an industry first, document-free trade finance solution that enables clients to instantly drawdown pre-approved trade loans and pay suppliers, with payment processing speed of under a minute.
It also recently extended its Mobile Trade Transaction Tracker service to financial institutions; and in 2022 it launched HSBC Trade Solutions, a holistic transformation of the way the bank interacts with clients to process trade finance transactions.
