A new blockchain-supported trade finance platform set to link up with 21 banks, including HSBC and Standard Chartered, is to be piloted by the Monetary Authority of Hong Kong.
The news comes via a story in today’s Financial Times, which adds that the platform will “be one of the first and largest examples of a government-led project aimed at upgrading the $9tn global trade finance industry”.
Blockchain is “expected to slash the time and paperwork needed to push through routine trade finance and supply-chain finance transactions by making it easier to verify each step of the complicated process and confirm the credentials of the parties involved”, states the FT.
The platform will be owned by the banks that have partnered with the Hong Kong regulator and the newspaper says around 21 banks are expected to join.
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The platform will be owned by the banks that have partnered with the Hong Kong regulator. The final number of financial institutions has not been confirmed but 21 banks are expected to join.
The system is being built by OneConnect, the tech subsidiary of China’s Ping An, a Chinese holding conglomerate whose subsidiaries mainly deal with insurance, banking, and financial services, and quotes its deputy chief executive Jessica Tan as predicting that, “Instead of individual banks trying to do this you have the regulator trying to bring the banks together.”
