The financing settlement application scenario for the New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor (ILSTC), a pilot cross-border financing blockchain platform, went online in Chongqing on October 19.

On that day, pilot banks handled five logistics financing and trade financing settlements for four enterprises, with their combined amount reaching over 3 million yuan.

This application scenario is jointly developed by Chongqing Foreign Exchange Management Department of the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), and Chongqing Port and Logistics Office and New International Land-Sea Trade Corridor Operation Co., Ltd., based on blockchain technology to meet the cross-border financing service needs of ILSTC.

It has diverse functions such as related document transfer, verification, and available amount control. More importantly, it can provide full-process logistics information on banks' credit management and improve financing accessibility and efficiency for trade and logistics enterprises.

After the platform went online in Chongqing, five application scenarios have been put into service. This significantly facilitates cross-border payment and trade financing for enterprises in Chongqing.

Over the past year, nearly 30 banking institutions participated in the pilot program in Chongqing. “With this platform, enterprises can submit export document information for trade financing online, and banks can also complete export declaration information inquiry and authentication online," said a relevant head from Chongqing Foreign Exchange Management Department. "As such, data can be shared, procedures can be streamlined, and efficiency can also be greatly improved, which brings great convenience to enterprises."

According to the latest data from the Chongqing Foreign Exchange Management Department of the SAFE, remarkable results have been shown since the platform went online in Chongqing.

As of the end of this September, pilot banks handled more than 8 billion U.S. dollars trade financing, and over 90% of its export trade financing business was also handled through this platform.

The banks' handling time to complete trade financing document authentication was shortened to 20 minutes from 0.5-2 working days.

Simultaneously, pilot banks handled 1.46 billion U.S. dollars facilitated payment for trade in services, and 98% of the cross-border payment for trade in services in the fashion of electronic tax filing form was handled on this platform.

Besides, enterprises are no longer required to go to banks or taxation authorities, with the settlement time shortened to 1-2 hours from 1-2 working days.