A new breakthrough in the banking industry in Shanghai, making cross-border financing for small businesses easier. Cross border | trade | enterprises
E-commerce, import and export trade, and opening up the Chinese market... The demand for cross-border finance for more and more small and medium-sized enterprises is becoming increasingly urgent. Helping cross-border enterprises solve their money problems is becoming a new business breakthrough for Shanghai Bank.
Recently, HSBC collaborated with the cross-border e-commerce digital API platform Dowsure Dousha Bao to provide financial support based on the sales, inventory, and payment performance data of cross-border e-commerce sellers in the Amazon ecosystem provided by the company. Using the trade performance model developed by HSBC, the financing needs of sellers in the entire trade chain are calculated to achieve faster and more accurate approval. This model has solved the problems that many small and medium-sized sellers generally face in traditional financing methods, such as long review time and difficult financing. In addition, with its cross-border linkage in mainland China and Hong Kong, HSBC can provide more coordinated and comprehensive financing solutions for sellers' funding needs in both domestic and international markets based on the same e-commerce platform ecosystem.
Ma Jian, Vice President and Director of Industrial and Commercial Finance at HSBC Bank Limited, said, "As financial institutions, we hope to better support small and medium-sized enterprises in actively responding to external market uncertainty through the application of digital technology and innovation in service models. We hope to fully combine the data advantages of Dowsure Bean Sandbags and our financial expertise to provide more efficient and accurate financial support for enterprises in new economic industries such as cross-border e-commerce, and support them to better enter the international market."
Not only cross-border e-commerce, but also some physical small and medium-sized enterprises preparing to open up the Chinese market also have similar financing difficulties. Roxcel International Trade Co., Ltd. was established in March 2022 and is a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Austrian ROXCEL Group established in China. The enterprise mainly engages in wholesale sales of coated paper, office copy paper, base paper, and paper-making related raw materials, while also engaging in import and export business. Its overseas business scope covers Austria, Thailand, Malaysia and other regions. Although the parent company is very strong, at the beginning of its establishment in China, this subsidiary had limited capital, no financial statements, and no performance. How can we leverage the overseas parent company to obtain loans from banks?
The answer to this question has been found in Bank of China. The parent company of the enterprise is located in Vienna, Austria, and the Vienna branch of Bank of China has a good understanding of it. Therefore, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone branch of Bank of China actively communicates and links with the Vienna branch, issuing financing guarantees through "external guarantees and internal loans". The Vienna branch issues working capital loans, providing financial support for the enterprise.
This answer stems from the continuous innovation of Bank of China. Previously, the Shanghai Pilot Free Trade Zone Branch and the Frankfurt Branch collaborated both domestically and internationally, fully considering factors such as external environment, customer development, and group cooperation. They innovatively designed a "external guarantee and internal loan" plan for foreign-funded enterprise Emma Sleep International Trade Co., Ltd. to support the business expansion of the famous European sleep brand Emma Sleep Group in the China region. In 2021, they disbursed 10 million yuan, and in 2022, they achieved a relay guarantee and renewal loan. This business model has formed a strong demonstration effect in foreign-funded enterprises with similar business needs, and has also effectively helped many foreign-funded enterprises who want to open up the Chinese market.
In order to better cater to the cross-border financing needs of enterprises, Bank of China Shanghai Branch has also established a cross-border service flexibility working group. The group members are composed of industry experts and business backbones. Currently, they have taken the lead in sorting out "going out" and "introducing" customers, and are developing "one place, one policy" based on different service methods in different countries. The group regularly follows up on the progress of cooperation with overseas branches, branch departments, and business units, focuses on customers, continuously promotes product innovation, and effectively improves the service quality and efficiency of cross-border customers.
All along, the Shanghai headquarters of the People's Bank of China has been continuously alleviating the cross-border financing difficulties of small and medium-sized enterprises, and providing precise support for the development of an innovative economy. If the management of external debt and debt is significantly relaxed, administrative approval for external guarantees is cancelled, and a pilot program for one-time registration of external debt is promoted in the Lingang New Area, enterprises no longer need to go through registration procedures on site every time, and external debt funds can be put into operation as soon as they are in place. In response to the problems of small net asset size and limited cross-border financing capacity of innovative enterprises, high-tech and "specialized, refined, and new" enterprises are allowed to independently borrow foreign debt within a limit of 10 million US dollars, effectively solving the bottleneck of financing difficulties for innovative enterprises.