HSBC Hong Kong Debuts POS Financing for B2B Sales

The Hong Kong arm of banking giant HSBC has launched a B2B transaction financing tool.

The new offering lets B2B sellers on online platforms offer customers extended payment terms, Trade Finance Global reported Wednesday (May 24).

“The last few years mark an accelerated shift to online buying and selling of goods and services,” said Aditya Gahlaut, HSBC managing director and co-head of global trade and receivables finance in the Asia Pacific region. “Our brand-new embedded point-of-sale financing solution will support our clients to maximize sales on their online platforms while maintaining better control over their cash flow.”

The tool uses application programming interfaces (APIs) to create a financing option on the checkout page of a client’s B2B eCommerce platform, according to the report. HSBC will pay its commercial customers in one business day once they’ve received a purchase order.

“As people have higher expectations of having near-instant purchase experience, this API-enabled solution will unlock new sales opportunities for our clients by offering an additional payment option and almost immediately available finance to improve acceptance of their customers,” Gahlaut said, per the report.

HSBC is launching this tool at a time when several financial institutions (FIs) and platforms are introducing products focused on trade finance and working capital to help small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs), which generally have trouble getting funding.

Santander announced in January, for example, a B2B buy now, pay later (BNPL) product for multinational corporations. Developed in partnership with Allianz Trade and Oslo-based BNPL FinTech Two, the solution lets companies offer business clients a consumer-style BNPL option with near-instant approval.

There’s also trade credit insurance as provided by the Tepfin X platform developed by Hyperion X, which lets banks and their brokers get quotes from throughout the structured credit insurance market, helping insurance buyers obtain risk coverage at reduced costs.

PYMNTS research showed that 74% of SMBs don’t have access to the equivalent of at least 60 days’ worth of revenue in financing, while 17% said they have no access to emergency funds.

Upheaval in the regional banking sector has only increased the funding challenge, as lenders have become more reticent about offering capital to SMBs with limited credit history, higher risk profiles, or weak collateral due to concerns about their own funding and deposits.

With these challenges in mind, many companies have begun introducing data-driven financing offerings to help meet the working capital needs of smaller businesses.

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