The CargoX project of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority realizes the interconnection of Shanghai-Hong Kong trade data and promotes the digitization of trade finance

China News Service, Hong Kong, October 5th. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority ("HKMA") held a CargoX Solution Day on the 5th to showcase innovative solutions to improve the interconnectivity of regional trade data under the CargoX project pilot program. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority introduced that it has cooperated with the Shanghai Municipal Data Bureau to successfully connect the "Business Data Link" with the digital trade platform built by the Shanghai Municipal Data Bureau. The first five pilot banks can obtain trade declaration data in the Yangtze River Delta region to speed up trade financing processes such as verifying trade authenticity and conducting due diligence reviews of trade counterparts.

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority announced the launch of the CargoX project pilot program on May 7 this year, launching a number of innovative projects with 21 participating banks, using the "Business Data Link" to explore application scenarios for freight logistics and trade data, in order to promote the digitization of trade finance.

"Business Data Connect" is an authorization-based data infrastructure project launched by the Hong Kong Monetary Authority in 2022. The project aims to facilitate bank access to business data of enterprises, especially small and medium-sized enterprises, through a secure and standardized interface, and optimize the loan application and credit assessment process of small and medium-sized enterprises.

The first batch of pilot banks to cooperate with "Tradelink" include Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited, Hang Seng Bank Limited, The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited ("HSBC"), Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited and Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited. Since the launch of this pilot project, 10 trade financing applications have been approved, with a loan amount of HK$180 million.

Huang Xingyan, managing director of HSBC Hong Kong Commercial Banking and head of small and medium-sized enterprises, said that many small and medium-sized enterprises use Hong Kong as the starting point to expand overseas markets, and the speed of corporate development is often faster than the update speed of traditional financial information, resulting in some operating changes not being reflected in financial statements in a timely manner. Currently, HSBC obtains an average of about 1.5 million pieces of data from "Business Data Connect" every month, and is committed to using credible business data to simplify the account opening and financing processes of small and medium-sized enterprises.

In addition, during the day's event, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority also signed a memorandum of understanding with the PAA Digital Trade Alliance ("PAA"). The alliance consists of a number of trade single window operators and e-commerce service providers. The two parties will carry out innovative projects to enhance the connectivity of freight logistics and trade data between Hong Kong and PAA member economies, thereby stimulating data-based financial service innovation and increasing trade financing opportunities in the region.