HSBC pilots first blockchain-based digital payments platform
The pilot transaction was implemented for a major property developer, Property Enterprises Development, who was a joint developer of landmark projects, such as One Raffles Quay and Marina Bay Financial Centre, and a member of CK Asset Group, one of the largest property developers in Hong Kong.
The real estate ecosystem involves multiple parties across a fragmented workflow, making coordination and oversight of core activities such as invoice submission, contract management and claims processing challenging. The lack of visibility, non-standard processes across multiple parties and disparate systems has resulted in payments delay and increased risks for all participants involved.
The new HSBC blockchain-based workflow and payment solution allows real estate businesses to digitalise workflow tracking processes thus enabling automation of payments release. The new solution will improve operational efficiency, governance, and transparency, and ultimately reduce the overall project turnaround time.
Lewis Sun, Global Head of Domestic and Emerging Payments, Global Payments Solutions, HSBC said: “We are excited to launch this milestone project in the emerging payments space where we are leveraging our proprietary Blockchain Payment Tool to support faster and more automated payments processing via off chain banking rails mitigating risks for financial transactions on chain.”
Louis Leung, Director, Property Enterprises Development (S) Pte Ltd (A member of CK Asset Group) – Perfect Ten Project said: “This platform is a significant step towards harnessing technology to establish control and transparency needed to strengthen relationships, increase efficiency and mitigate risks in the real estate ecosystem.”
The platform which leverages a HSBC-patented Blockchain technology offers a secured environment where ecosystem participants can access information, view real-time updates, automate routine tasks, and interact on a single platform. Most importantly, businesses will benefit from a Blockchain-based network which supports payments that can be processed via the traditional banking rails as well as enabling conditional payments to be processed digitally via Smart Contracts1.
A first of its kind in Singapore, this pilot marks a collaborative effort between HSBC and the real estate industry to bring the real estate ecosystem towards a more competitive and digitally driven future. It is also aligned to the strategies under Singapore’s Built Environment Industry Transformation Map which aims to transform the real estate construction sector through the three key stages of a building’s life cycle - from planning and design, construction, to operations and maintenance2.
Winnie Yap, Head of Global Payments Solutions, HSBC Singapore, added: “This pilot comes at an opportune time where the Singapore market is moving towards the full retirement of cheques as a payment instrument. Programmability in payments will help the industry in a variety of use cases in the real estate space and potentially for other complex infrastructure developments.”
With the successful completion of this pilot transaction, HSBC Singapore plans to scale up and commercialise the solution to explore new use cases as well as share best practices with other markets.
Media enquiries:
Betty Fong | +65 6658 4103 | betty.c.y.fong@hsbc.com.sg
Note to Editors:
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited
The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited is the founding member of the HSBC Group. HSBC serves customers worldwide from offices in 62 countries and territories. With assets of US$3,041bn as of 30 June 2023, HSBC is one of the world’s largest banking and financial services organisations.
Property Enterprises Development (S) Pte Ltd (A member of CK Asset Group) – Perfect Ten Project
Property Enterprises Development is a member of the CK Asset Holdings Limited in Hong Kong. The Group leads the property marketing, development, and management of CK Asset projects in Singapore.