HSBC Expands Global Trade Finance Investment Network

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 28 (Bernama) -- HSBC Group has built a multi-hub capability to enable investors such as pension funds, asset managers and insurers to participate in the global financing of cross-border trade. HSBC Bank Malaysia Bhd said the announcement was made at the Swift International Banking Operations Seminar (Sibos) in Geneva, Switzerland Wednesday. "As part of a US$10 million investment in people and systems, trade ‘risk-distribution’ specialists are now integrated into HSBC’s Global Trade and Receivables Finance (GTRF) teams in London, Singapore and New York. "Their role is to increase access to trade finance for investors seeking relatively low-risk assets that have traditionally been traded between banks, and they can structure investments based on ‘single-name’ trade finance contracts or on packages of contracts involving multiple customers," it said in a statement here. GTRF originated more than US$550 billion of documentary trade finance for customers in 2015, helping turned HSBC into the leading international trade bank. HSBC Global Head of Trade Risk Distribution Surath Sengupta said: "The ability we now have to originate and distribute trade receivables simultaneously in Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Africa, and the Americas is beneficial to our customers, to investors and to HSBC. "Driven by demand from our customers, it also enables us to take on larger deals than we might otherwise have done, meaning they only need to work with one bank to cover their trade finance needs," he added. -- BERNAMA