BIS Innovation Hub and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority announce TechChallenge winners
The Bank for International Settlements Innovation Hub (BISIH) centre in Hong Kong SAR and the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) today announced the winners of the TechChallenge – Digitising Trade Finance initiative.
The was launched in to highlight the potential for new technologies to enhance trade finance mechanisms. Winners were selected from 103 technology solutions submitted by applicants worldwide to three problem statements: Connecting Digital Islands and Increasing Network Size and Effects; Trade Finance Inclusion for SMEs; and TradeTech for Emerging Markets.
The winners, including runners-up, in alphabetical order, are: Business Big Data Inc., eCOM Asia Ltd., EMALI.IO Ltd., essDOCS Ltd., Forms Syntron Information (HK) Ltd., FreightAmigo Services Ltd., HashKey Group, iLoan, KYC-Chain Ltd., Linklogis International Company Ltd., OneConnect Financial Technology Co., Ltd., PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting Hong Kong Ltd., Refinitiv Hong Kong Ltd., Standard Chartered and University of Hong Kong-SCF FinTech Academy, Sedicii Innovations Ltd., Velotrade Management Ltd. and WeBank Co., Ltd.
All have been invited to showcase their submissions at the , which will run as a virtual event on 2-6 November. More details about the winners and all shortlisted participants the technology solutions they propose can be viewed .
Receiving innovative tech solutions from companies based all over the world shows that technology has significant potential to improve trade finance processes, ranging from very large institutional trade finance to SMEs at the grassroots level. We look forward to seeing further development of the proposals and new prototypes in the months ahead.
The HKMA is pleased to have received an enthusiastic response even amid the pandemic and is impressed by the quality of the submissions. We believe that the winning proposals, when further developed, hold great potential for addressing some long-standing pain points of the global trade finance business. We look forward to the next steps and continuing our close collaboration with the BISIH.
TechChallenge was supported by judges from the Asian Development Bank, the Global Shipping Business Network, the Institute of International Finance, the International Chamber of Commerce, Oxford University, the People’s Bank of China, the Trade Finance Global (TFG), the TradeLens, the Trade IX & the Marco Polo Network, the Wolfsberg Group, the World Economic Forum and the World Trade Organization.
About the BIS Innovation Hub
The BIS Innovation Hub was established in 2019 to identify and develop in-depth insights into critical trends in financial technology of relevance to central banks, to explore the development of public goods to enhance the functioning of the global financial system, and to serve as a focal point for a network of central bank experts on innovation. At present, there are Hubs in Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong. Over the next two years, new centres will be opened in collaboration with the Bank of Canada (Toronto), the Bank of England (London), the European Central Bank/Eurosystem (Frankfurt and Paris) and four Nordic central banks (Danmarks Nationalbank, the Central Bank of Iceland, the Central Bank of Norway and Sveriges Riksbank) in Stockholm. The BIS will also form a strategic partnership with the Federal Reserve System (New York).