HSBC and BoCom roll out remittance partnership

HSBC has added another layer to its deepening relationship with Bank of Communications (BoCom), announcing the launch of a new remittance service. From September, HSBC and BoCom will jointly launch a product known as Express Remittance, offering corporate clients favourable cut-off times on their same-day US dollar remittances.

The same-day service covers telegraphic remittances in US dollars from HSBC customers in Hong Kong to selected BoCom accounts in China. Initially, corporate accounts in several Guangzhou and Ningbo branches of BoCom will be privy to the new service, but coverage will expand to around 80 branches around China by the end of the year. It is a first for HSBC which has never offered a same-day USD remittance service to mainland branches outside of its own branch network.

The same-day clearing of USD remittances will also be easier for customers to execute with both banks providing accommodating instruction cut-off times. When HSBC customers remit to BoCom the cut-off time is set for 4:00pm. When BoCom uses the service, the cut-off time will be 2:30pm to process same-day USD remittances.

“We are seeing demand for more sophisticated cash management services from
companies in the Greater China region,” says Lawrence Webb, head of payments and cash management, Asia-Pacific at HSBC. “Through seamless system integration between the two banks, we have streamlined the remittance process and can now offer a much faster turnaround time to our customers. Express Remittance improves remittance lead time, accelerating fund availability and helping our customers put their working capital to better use.”

As part of the service, customers at BoCom’s Guangzhou and Ningbo branches will also be able to execute same-day remittances to accounts held at HSBC branches in several of Asia's largest markets. These include Macau, Taiwan, Japan, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Indonesia, Korea and Singapore.

As a sweetener, HSBC will offer a preferential local charge of HK$30 for US dollar telegraphic transfers from HSBC accounts in Hong Kong to BoCom accounts in China.

The launch of Express Remittance comes seven months after the two banks jointly rolled out ChinaExpress. This service is a documentary credit advising service that provides clients access to over 2,700 offices in 137 cities in China.