Digital finance forum: AI, data must link ‘digital islands’ to smooth trade finance
Bankers from HSBC, Hang Seng Bank and ICBC Asia tout technology innovation to ease pain points for trade-finance clients
The use of technology in trade finance is advancing from digitising existing paperwork to re-engineering entire processes with artificial intelligence and shared data, according to bank executives at the Development & Innovation of AI for Digital Finance forum on Monday in Hong Kong.
“When we are talking about digitalisation, we are actually making the current process digital,” said Raluca Popa, head of global trade solutions, commercial banking, Hong Kong, HSBC. “The future will require a rethinking of the current process to enable access to financing for a wider variety of customers.”
Popa said she envisioned using AI to connect directly to customers’ accounting or enterprise resource planning systems to extract and process relevant data in seconds.
Gilbert Lee Man-lung, executive chairman of Heng Sang Bank (China), said the main pain points for his trade-finance clients had always been time, cost and uncertainty.
Improving the visibility, certainty and efficiency of trade was “where technology plays a very important part”, Lee said.
Jimmy Jim, managing executive officer of ICBC (Asia), the Hong Kong subsidiary of mainland China’s largest bank by total assets, said geopolitical tensions were accelerating trade diversification while the industry also faced intense competition and fragmented platforms.
“We are still seeing the digital islands,” he said. “There are many trade-finance platforms that are not connected.”