Bolero powers Bank of China’s first-ever electronic credit
Bank of China (Hong Kong) (BOCHK) has used Bolero’s ePresentation solution for its first-ever electronic back-to-back documentary credit, reducing the time required to help a large iron ore shipment from Australia to China.
The transaction was arranged jointly with NAB (National Australia Bank) and China Guangfa Bank; and is part of the Hong Kong government’s drive to increase the digitisation of trade documents.
The transaction concerned a shipment of iron ore from BHP Billiton in Australia to Shougang, a steel company in mainland China and resulted in the electronic presentation of documents and electronic bill of lading.
Linhui Teng, general manager of transaction banking department, BOCHK, says the transaction is an “important step forward in the development of our electronic banking services”.
The documentary credit was issued for Shougang by China Guangfa Bank, with the beneficiary being Shougang’s trading arm in Hong Kong. BOCHK then issued the documentary credit to NAB in favour of BHP Billiton. NAB, on behalf of its customer BHP Billiton, also checked an electronic bill of lading (eBL) for compliance with the documentary credit before the documents with eBL went through BOCHK and China Guangfa Bank to Shougang for their electronic surrender of the eBL to the carrier.
Bolero was founded in 1998 and is headquartered in the UK. The firm says it powers more than six million trade documents and $80 billion worth of trade transactions per annum.
