How does the "blockchain" finance foreign trade enterprises?

Xinhua News Agency, Beijing165438+1October 14: How does the "blockchain" finance foreign trade enterprises?

Blockchain is one of the most fashionable technical terms. In recent years, various financial institutions have invested heavily in blockchain technology, and financial authorities are also actively studying the application of blockchain technology.

2065438+March 2009, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange launched a cross-border financial blockchain service platform, combining blockchain technology with cross-border financial services, and gradually cultivating a cross-border credit service system in the foreign exchange field.

Although China is the largest exporter in the world, small and medium-sized enterprises account for the majority in foreign trade. For them, the credit reputation of enterprises is insufficient, it is difficult to obtain financing, and the financing efficiency is low and the cycle is long.

At the same time, how to provide financial services for these small and medium-sized enterprises engaged in foreign trade also has bottlenecks. "Banks lack effective and convenient channels to verify the authenticity of the trade financing background, and the information between banks is fragmented, which is prone to repeated financing or excessive financing." The relevant person in charge of a local branch of a large state-owned bank said.

Cracking the credit risk caused by information asymmetry is precisely the specialty of blockchain technology. Blockchain is a distributed ledger and database, characterized by "honesty" and "transparency". The rich application scenarios of blockchain are basically based on the fact that blockchain can solve the problem of information asymmetry and realize cooperation, trust and concerted action among multiple subjects.

"We have established a cross-border financial service platform for information exchange and effective verification between foreign exchange, taxation, banking and other departments and relevant market entities, so as to realize the collaboration of various information such as fund receipt and payment and pledge vouchers." The relevant person in charge of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange said.

From the data point of view, after the cross-border financial blockchain service platform was further expanded to the whole country in June 2020, by the end of June 2020, there were 65438+1October 3 1, more than 270 corporate banks volunteered to participate, and more than 5 100 service entrepreneurs, of which SMEs accounted for 75%. The total amount of financing and lending completed by the platform is equivalent to US$ 52.69 billion, and the number of financing and lending transactions exceeds 62,000.

The person in charge of a local enterprise engaged in foreign trade lighting in Zhejiang said that the blockchain allows enterprises to do "subtraction", and it is no longer necessary to provide capital flow and annual customs declaration as proof, saving manpower and time for enterprises.

In Chongqing, on average, each financing business needs to inquire about nearly 66 export information, and the most complicated one even involves 1 138. After using the cross-border financial blockchain service platform, the document inspection time was shortened from 0.5 to 2 working days to 20 minutes.

After the outbreak of COVID-19 epidemic, this "air route", which is convenient for foreign trade enterprises to enjoy financial services, has provided strong support for enterprises to carry out normal business because of its "non-contact" handling.

"During the COVID-19 epidemic, we applied for export invoice financing of more than US$ 2 million, involving nearly 80 trade documents. I didn't expect the bank to lend money in two hours. With the help of the blockchain platform, the bank completed customs clearance within 2 minutes through the batch verification function. " The person in charge of a foreign trade enterprise along the coast said with emotion.

According to the data of the foreign exchange bureau, since the outbreak of the new crown pneumonia epidemic, the amount of financing and lending of the cross-border financial blockchain service platform has reached 36.398 billion US dollars, accounting for about 69% of the financing amount since the pilot.

Experts believe that the COVID-19 epidemic has a great impact on the foreign trade industry, and the financing needs of enterprises are even stronger. In the "non-contact" environment, the function and value of online financial services have been amplified.

The deep integration of the cross-border financial blockchain service platform and the bank's own business will also help the bank's business optimization and innovation. For example, relying on the import and export scale information provided by the blockchain platform, Bank of Ningbo has launched a pure credit financing product, which is mortgage-free, online application and automatic approval, and the fastest time is 10 minute.

"In the future, we will continue to expand platform application scenarios according to the actual needs of enterprises and banks, and further facilitate market entities such as enterprises and banks to handle cross-border trade and investment and financing business." The relevant person in charge of the foreign exchange bureau said.