HSBC has introduced a matched electronic purchase order (MEPO) financing solution, developed by Bolero.

The bank says the solution will help improve working capital management for its clients, and will reduce the cost of processing invoice and purchase orders. Suppliers will be able to use the system to lodge earlier requests for financing from their corporate buyers, which are customers of HSBC.

Invoice and purchase orders are trackable in real time, while processing, matching and approval is done automatically. It removes paper from the equation, making it more efficient and timely.

“This deployment offers huge advantages for our customers by speeding up the working capital cycle and making their processes more efficient. One of our clients, a major US retailer, has recently implemented the MEPO platform and a number of others will be introducing the platform in the near future,” says Vinay Mendonca, global head of product and propositions at the bank.

Ian Kerr, Bolero CEO, adds: “HSBC’s MEPO service introduces significant benefits to the global supply chain, removes the pain associated with time consuming, manual, paper-based processing. Buyers and sellers alike will benefit from faster transactions and payments, and sellers will be able to securely apply for financing much more quickly.”

It is the latest in a line of digital implementations from HSBC in recent months. It recently partnered with IBM to launch a cognitive solution to digitise and automate trade finance documentation.

In May it rolled out its LinkScreen virtual platform for business customers to Mexico and the US after a successful trial in the UK. While in March, it partnered with Tradeshift to enable digitisation of its customers supply chain and working capital requirements.

HSBC is among the seven banks set to go live with Hyperledger’s trade finance platform on blockchain later this year. It also is one of the seven banks that partnered with R3 and Finastra on a syndicated lending platform on blockchain.

Bolero, meanwhile, has also been strengthening its digital hand. Last week, the trade digitisation company announced a partnership with blockchain consortium R3 which would take its electronic bill of lading onto distributed ledger technology.