Trade Tracker – the next step in trade digitisation

HSBC has taken digital trade a step further with the introduction of its Trade Transaction Tracker - an app providing instant access to trade transactions 24/7.

Trade Tracker is available to HSBC trade customers through the HSBCnet Mobile app facility for either Apple or android phones. The solution has been built to provide the customers with easy self-onboarding processes using their details registered with HSBC.

It also provides –

• An overview of documentary credits, collections and payments;
• Access to export and import documentary credits and collection transactions status; and
• Real-time trade transaction status detail.

Available in major markets globally, the service was initially trialled in Singapore and Bangladesh. It is now available in Australia as a free service for HSBC trade clients with an instant @dvice e-mail subscription.

Australia is in the first wave of the global roll-out.  Trade Tracker is live in Qatar, Bangladesh, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Sri Lanka, Maldives, South Korea, Japan, UK, Singapore, UAE, Bahrain and Kuwait.

Joseph Arena, HSBC’s new Head of Global Trade and Receivables Finance for Australia, was involved in the debut of Trade Tracker in Singapore. He says hundreds of customers have gone live in each of the launch markets.

He believes the service is the first of its kind in the Trade Banking sector to provide customers with a global view of import and export documentary credits and collections transactions on one single application.

He expects several reiterations of the facility over time. “As clients become familiar with it, there will be more updates,” he says.

Trade Tracker offers one-time authentication, with no need to carry or access a password as it automatically validates client credentials at every log-on.

“You can drill down to each individual transaction,” Arena says. “The billing area gives interactive messages, and the document presentation allows continuum of the process – through bills authorisation to bill acceptance stage.”

Arena says: “We are putting HSBC at the forefront of digitising trade, with more investment and resources going into technology to make the US$500 billion we facilitate in trade annually simpler, faster and more secure.

“Trade Tracker acts as a self-serve where you can serve yourself (by accessing tractional details online) rather than ring the bank, and ask where the transaction is at. It saves time and money.

Arena expects ongoing enhancement to digital products around trade, and says Trade Tracker is just part of a suite of digitisation products the bank is looking at.

HSBC is the largest bank in trade globally, he says, with 10 per cent of the total market transacted through the bank. “So we should be leading the agenda on trade – and that is what we are trying to do with this outcome.”

Trade Tracker is currently available in English only. Local language support forms part of the long-term roadmap and will be considered on a case by case basis.