HSBC has launched point-of-sale financing for business-to business (B2B) transactions, partnering with Hong Kong-based digital freight logistics platform FreightAmigo for the first roll-out of the solution.

Using APIs to create an embedded financing option at the check-out page of HSBC clients’ B2B e-commerce websites, HSBC’s new offering enables sellers to offer extended terms of payment to their customers directly within their online platforms, with the bank paying its commercial clients in one business day after they receive a purchase order.

The service will go live in early June, initially on FreightAmigo, a one-stop freight booking marketplace that allows e-commerce companies to place bookings for air and ocean shipping with different carriers.

With HSBC’s embedded point of sale financing option, companies will be able to pay for shipment bookings on extended terms at no extra cost – what HSBC is calling “ship now, pay later”. GTR understands this is a seller-led receivables finance proposition that uses FreightAmigo as the anchor seller, while credit decisioning will take into account the buyer’s trading history and credit profile.

“The last few years mark an accelerated shift to online buying and selling of goods and services,” says Aditya Gahlaut, HSBC’s co-head of global trade and receivables finance for Asia Pacific. “Our brand-new embedded point-of-sale financing solution will support our clients to maximise sales on their online platforms while maintaining better control over their cashflow. As people have higher expectation 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.”

With online B2B sales on the up – research from trade credit insurer Allianz Trade predicts a 37% increase in transaction volumes by 2025 – the e-commerce space presents a new frontier for trade financiers looking to expand their reach, and banks are starting to take note.

In 2021, HSBC launched a digital merchant finance programme in partnership with HKTVmall to leverage commercial data for credit assessment, making finance more accessible for e-commerce merchants, while this year, Santander launched a B2B buy now pay later offering in partnership with e-commerce payments platform Two, using credit decisioning data from Allianz Trade.