A blockchain trade finance platform adult by eight major banks, among them HSBC, BNP Paribas, and Citi, is now ready for commercial launch in Singapore in Q2 2022.

Named Profile, the launch follows a successful trial of the platform involving over $30 million in letter-of-credit transactions last year, South China Morn Post reported on March five.

Letter-of-credit transactions are a payment machinery widely used in international merchandise, in which a depository financial institution provides a seller with an economical guarantee for a heir-apparent's payment.

Every bit the coronavirus continues to shake global markets, a regional executive told reporters that the platform can ensure commercial trades go on smoothly even in times of crisis.

Ajay Sharma, HSBC's regional head of global trade and receivables finance, claimed that:

"Leveraging blockchain for trade finance has overcome the physical constraints nosotros are having today."

He added that the company operating Contour expects to have a workforce of around 20 employees by the year'due south cease.

An established apply case for blockchain

Bank-backed blockchain merchandise finance platforms are already prevalent in Asia-Pacific and globally. In 2022, a platform dubbed eTrade Connect — backed by HSBC, BNP Paribas, Standard Chartered and ix other banks — launched in Hong Kong.

Trade finance platform we.merchandise — which too counts HSBC equally a founder bank, alongside Rabobank, Santander, Société Générale, UniCredit, Deutsche Depository financial institution, and others —  collaborated with the Hyperledger Fabric-powered IBM blockchain to complete its first alive operations earlier that twelvemonth.

In China this leap, a People's Depository financial institution of China-affiliated initiative run past the state'due south strange substitution reserve regulator piloted its own cross-border merchandise finance blockchain in 3 major trading provinces.

Blockchain applied science has been found to exist beneficial across the trade financing process — allowing for the automated verification of customs documents and respective financing balances and enabling existent-time and transparent data sharing.

In Oman, major oil and gas enterprises and HSBC Bank Sultanate of oman SAOG conducted their first fully digitized letter of credit on the blockchain using R3's Corda platform final autumn.