A blockchain trade finance platform developed by eight banks, Contour, including HSBC and Standard Chartered, has gotten closer to commercial launch in Hong Kong.
After completing over USD 30 million worth of letter-of-credit transactions in 2019 during its trial phase, the Contour blockchain trade finance platform is ready to be launched in the second half of the year.
Besides HSBC and Standard Chartered, the other six banks that have invested in the new company include CTBC Holding, ING, Bangkok Bank, BNP Paribas, SEB, and Citi. In October 2019, Singapore launched its first blockchain-based trade finance platform.
In China, blockchain-backed trade finance is already widely adopted. Around 170 banks in China have joined the blockchain platform spearheaded by the State Administration of Foreign Exchange to provide trade finance to their clients, according to data from the People’s Bank of China, cited by finews.asia.
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