Multinational banking giant HSBC has reportedly become the first bank to complete financing transaction on European blockchain trade platform we.trade.
Since we.trade started the project back in 2017, HSBC recently financed a transaction on the platform within a second round of pilots that started in June 2019, economics magazine Global Trade Review (GTR) reported on Aug. 22.
The transaction involved HSBC’s client Beeswift, a Midlands-based producer of protective equipment, and their sale to a Rabobank-banked Dutch firm, the report notes.
Based in Dublin, we.trade provides a Hyperledger Fabric-based tool for managing, tracking and securing open account trade transactions between SMEs in Europe. The platform intends to facilitate three major steps in SME trade, including access to trusted counterparties for direct online transactions, so-called bank payment undertaking, which is an online equivalent of a letter of credit, and financing requesting, according to the report.
Backing by major global banks
To date, we.trade is reportedly backed by 12 shareholders, including Deutsche Bank, CaixaBank, Natixis, Nordea, Rabobank, Santander, Société Générale, and HSBC itself. According to GTR, all 12 banks had signed license agreements to use the platform by January 2019.
We.trade is not the only trade finance-related blockchain initiatives that HSBC is involved in. As previously reported, the United Kingdom-based banking giant is also piloting Corda-powered blockchain trade project Voltron. Following recent pilots, HSBC reportedly said that Voltron implementation reduced transaction time by 40%.