HKMA to help banks assess firms for trade financing by using cargo data
The
Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has launched a new initiative that will use cargo logistics data to help banks assess companies for trade financing amid escalating global worries about tariffs.
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The initiative, called CargoX, would expand data sets and applications in the de facto central bank's electronic platform – the Commercial Data Interchange (CDI) – in an effort to make trade financing more readily available to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), the HKMA said on Monday.
The move would help SMEs cope with 'the current complex international trade situation', it said. Around a quarter of Hong Kong's SMEs are involved in import-export trade and wholesale businesses, the HKMA said.
'In today's complex global trade landscape, many businesses, in particular SME traders, need more digitalised and efficient trade finance solutions to transform their business models and supply chains,' HKMA chief executive Eddie Yue Wai-man said. 'Leveraging cargo data and our next-generation CDI data infrastructure, CargoX will help resolve some long-standing pain points in trade finance for banks, ultimately boosting efficiency and driving industry-wide innovation.'
The CargoX programme will securely share sea, road and air cargo logistics data – with the consent of the companies involved – so that banks can more accurately evaluate their corporate lending.
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