DBS Hong Kong and GS1 HK leverage HKMA’s CDI Initiative to provide Digital ‘One Click’ Trade Financing for SMEs

Hong Kong, 24 October 2022 – DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited (“DBS Hong Kong”) and GS1 Hong Kong today announced a plan to further enhance their innovative SME trade financing solution with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) Commercial Data Interchange (CDI) platform. The move is part of DBS Hong Kong’s commitment to provide enterprises with tailored, efficient financing services while also supporting the fintech ecosystem development led by the HKMA in Hong Kong. 

Providing innovative trade finance solutions to meet SMEs’ business needs

In June 2022, DBS Hong Kong and GS1 Hong Kong successfully launched a highly flexible and efficient digital post-shipment trade financing solution powered by alternative data. The solution enables small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) on GS1 Hong Kong’s ezTRADE platform to utilise their trade data to access trade financing in a digital and straight-through manner. 

With the new solution, SMEs can access much needed working capital with just one click via the bank’s corporate banking platform, DBS IDEAL. This means that SMEs no longer need to manually submit hundreds of invoices and supporting documents, reducing time and effort through the adoption of a more digital and sustainable way of doing business and seeking financing. The solution redefines the trade financing journey for SMEs with DBS availing financing through a streamlined credit assessment process. Through DBS’ predictive analytics capabilities, invoice data is used to assess the financial health of SMEs, with the amount of financing available to SMEs updated on a dynamic and recurring basis. 

The launch of CDI provides a strong foundation for the future development of DBS trade financing solutions and ecosystem collaboration. CDI’s next-generation financial data infrastructure, offers secure, efficient, and scalable data sharing between banks and data providers – simplifying the connectivity between participating parties while providing a flexible platform design for innovative applications. DBS Hong Kong plans to leverage CDI’s platform capabilities to further enhance its recently launched trade financing solution and accelerate its ecosystem strategy in Hong Kong.

Alex Cheung, Managing Director and Head of Institutional Banking Group of DBS Hong Kong said that the latest trade financing solution enhancement demonstrates the bank’s strong commitment to developing Hong Kong’s fintech ecosystem. “As a leader in SME banking, DBS is proud to be a part of HKMA’s CDI platform. Since launching our innovative digital trade finance solution with GS1 Hong Kong earlier this year, we have successfully provided SMEs with enhanced and simplified access to working capital. DBS Hong Kong is proud to be an early adopter of CDI and we look forward to working on additional use cases that leverage the platform and find new ways to increase access to funding for SMEs.”

Anna Lin, Chief Executive of GS1 Hong Kong said, “The collaboration between GS1 Hong Kong and DBS Hong Kong on digital trade financing has borne fruit to many SMEs enjoying trade financing in a much simpler and digitised manner already. As the first batch of the CDI’s participants, GS1 Hong Kong not only provides trusted digital trade data from our ezTRADE, a long-serving B2B e-business community platform, but also supports DBS Hong Kong in building an application interface that connects with the infrastructure, enabling the bank to offer upgraded financing solution. With the CDI, I look forward to unleashing the full potential of more alternative data, enhancing SMEs’ access to financial services and nurturing the trade financing ecosystem in Hong Kong.” 

“Our digital solution has redefined the trade financing journey for SMEs on GS1 HK’s ezTRADE platform. Via our collaboration, we have enabled a digital ‘one click’ transaction experience and greatly reduced the time and effort needed to acquire working capital,” said Sandy Tan, Head of Ecosystems for Institutional Banking Group, DBS Bank (Hong Kong) Limited. “DBS Hong Kong is committed to taking an active role in further developing and growing Hong Kong’s robust fintech ecosystem. Building on the launch of CDI’s capabilities, we expect to bring our solution to the next level in customer experience while providing more offerings to support the business growth of the SME community.”

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About GS1 Hong Kong
Founded by the Hong Kong General Chamber of Commerce in 1989, GS1 Hong Kong (GS1 HK) is the local chapter of GS1®, which supports companies’ digitalisation to enhance supply chain transparency and efficiency, ensure product authenticity, and facilitate online and offline commerce with global supply chain standards (product identification key and barcode) and a full spectrum of standard-based platforms, solutions and services. 

Currently, GS1 HK has around 8,000 corporate members covering close to 20 industries including retail consumer goods, food and food services, healthcare, apparel, logistics as well as information and technology. By engaging with communities of trading partners, industry organisations, government, and technology providers, GS1 HK is fostering a collaborative ecosystem with the vision of “Smarter Business, Better Life”.

Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, GS1® is a not-for-profit, standards organisation that has 115 national chapters serving 150 economies globally. For more information, please visit www.gs1hk.org.

About DBS 

DBS is a leading financial services group in Asia with a presence in 18 markets. Headquartered and listed in Singapore, DBS is in the three key Asian axes of growth: Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Asia. The bank's "AA-" and "Aa1" credit ratings are among the highest in the world.

Recognised for its global leadership, DBS has been named “World’s Best Bank” by Euromoney, “Global Bank of the Year” by The Banker and “Best Bank in the World” by Global Finance. The bank is at the forefront of leveraging digital technology to shape the future of banking, having been named “World’s Best Digital Bank” by Euromoney and the world’s “Most Innovative in Digital Banking” by The Banker. In addition, DBS has been accorded the “Safest Bank in Asia” award by Global Finance for 13 consecutive years from 2009 to 2021.

DBS provides a full range of services in consumer, SME and corporate banking. As a bank born and bred in Asia, DBS understands the intricacies of doing business in the region’s most dynamic markets. DBS is committed to building lasting relationships with customers, as it banks the Asian way. Through the DBS Foundation, the bank creates impact beyond banking by supporting social enterprises: businesses with a double bottom-line of profit and social and/or environmental impact. DBS Foundation also gives back to society in various ways, including equipping communities with future-ready skills and building food resilience.

With its extensive network of operations in Asia and emphasis on engaging and empowering its staff, DBS presents exciting career opportunities. For more information, please visit www.dbs.com.

For further information, please contact: 

Corinna Fung
Telephone: +852 2863 9787
Email: corinnafung@gs1hk.org

Will Ip
Telephone: +852 2863 9763
Email: willip@gs1hk.org