Announces the launch of Global Payment & Collection Solutions in Hong Kong and Announces the "Jan-Jul 2023 Mainland China SMEs Export to Hong Kong Leading Indicator" for the First Time
HONG KONG, Aug. 1, 2023 -- XTransfer held an official Hong Kong product launch event at Sky100, announcing the official launch of its global payment & collection solutions, foreign exchange services, and other financial services for Hong Kong's foreign trade SMEs. During the conference, XTransfer also celebrated its 6th anniversary with the support from Mr King Leung, Head of Financial Services and Fintech of Invest Hong Kong, representatives from internationally renowned financial institutions such as Citibank, DBS Bank, J.P. Morgan and Deutsche Bank, as well as guests from Hong Kong Science Park, Cyberport and chambers in Hong Kong.
According to World Trade Organization, in 2022, Hong Kong was the world's 10th largest trading entity in goods and the world's 10th largest exporter of merchandise trade, with exports of US$609,925 million. Among them, the value of re-exports of Mainland goods to overseas countries was HK$1,921.5 billion*, accounting for more than 40% of the total volume of re-exports. It is evident that Hong Kong is a trading hub linking the Mainland with the rest of the world. Despite the efforts of Hong Kong SMEs, they continue to encounter significant obstacles in trade settlement with Mainland China, including difficulties in opening accounts with traditional banks, high risk of funds freezing, high exchange losses, long remittance time, high remittance costs, and even being forced to remit funds through non-compliant channels. XTransfer has identified these issues in the industry and is now launching compliant, highly efficient, convenient and low-cost global trade payment & collection solutions and other related financial services.
Driven by big data, XTransfer uses its independently developed data-based, automated, internet-powered, and intelligent anti-money laundering risk management infrastructure to help financial institutions to serve SME foreign trade enterprises with risks mitigated, reaching win-win situations. Our clients will be offered "Payment & Collection Accounts" with international banks / financial institutions such as DBS Bank, Citibank, JP Morgan and Deutsche Bank through XTransfer's platform, allowing them to pay Mainland Chinese suppliers or receive payment from global buyers for physical commodity trade through our platform.
Hong Kong foreign traders can conduct "Account-to-Account" payments to their Mainland Chinese suppliers, who are also XTransfer clients, making it as easy as "local bank transfers", allowing a twenty-four-seven instant payment of the goods. XTransfer provides assistance to both Hong Kong and Mainland Chinese clients with compliant FX reporting and settlement, allowing them to receive payment in their Chinese bank accounts. Additionally, clients can benefit from more favourable exchange rates than those offered by banks through XTransfer's platform. The entire process is conducted online, compliant and secure, significantly reducing time and costs while improving operational efficiency.
Bill Deng, Founder and CEO of XTransfer, said, "In May 2023, Hong Kong business was officially launched and is set to be upgraded to Service Centre on August 1st, to enhance services for Hong Kong's foreign trade enterprises. This year, the Hong Kong Service Centre will be expanded to a team of more than 40 people. Moving forward, we plan to leverage Hong Kong's position as a hub to accelerate our global footprint. The business of the rest of the world will be launched one after another. We hope to deliver our services through Internet and AI intelligent to SMEs worldwide to fulfil our mission to "Empower Global SMEs to Enjoy Financial Services".
In addition, XTransfer is excited to announce the "Jan to Jul 2023 Mainland China SMEs Export to Hong Kong Leading Indicator" (the "Indicator") for the first time. The Indicator is calculated by normalising and weighting the data of the same batch of a representative sample of clients in 2023 and during the same period in the previous year. In B2B export trade, data on payment collections often precedes the customs and logistics data to show trends, which can predict the foreign trade export outlook in the next one to three months. The overall performance of Jan to Jul 2023 of the Indicator was lower than the same period of last year but showed a steady and rising trend. XTransfer expects the Indicator to rise to 70.53 in August.
As a seasoned technology platform catering to foreign trade enterprises, XTransfer is familiar with the latest developments in the trade industry. Based on the analysis of the characteristics of XTransfer's clients, among its mainland SMEs clients, the top three provinces in terms of payment collected by exporters from Jan to Jul of 2023 are Guangdong, Zhejiang and Fujian. Among them, Guangdong Province was the most active, with Guangdong SMEs accounting for 72.9% of XTransfer's clients' total payment collections from exports to Hong Kong, Zhejiang for 5.5%, and Fujian for 4.1%. Tianjin SMEs saw significant growth in their exports, with a 32.3% increase in payment collections compared to the same period last year. In terms of export categories, the top three categories of SMEs' exports to Hong Kong were: mechanical appliances and parts thereof, base metals and their manufacturers, and textile raw materials and textile products.
