HKMA: banks using shared trade data charge SMEs 36 basis points less

Serguey Asael Shinder14 October 2026, 09:542 min read

Howard Lee, Deputy Chief Executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), opened a Project Cargox solution day in Hong Kong on 5 October 2026; the remarks were published by the BIS on 13 October. The event brought together banks, the Shanghai Data Bureau and the PAA Digital Trade Alliance around one problem: small exporters generate a great deal of trade data that banks cannot use when deciding whether to lend to them.

Why a central bank is in trade data. Lee answered the question directly: as Hong Kong's central banking institution, the HKMA sees supporting the real economy through financial infrastructure as part of its mission, and data infrastructure is now part of that. He set the context with trade figures: Hong Kong's exports reached HK$667 billion in August, second only to the record high and up 53% year on year, with double-digit growth for 19 consecutive months.

The problem. According to the remarks, SME financing suffers from ecosystem fragmentation. Cargo and trade data are scattered across customs declarations, forwarders' waybills, carrier tracking systems and e-commerce sales records; many trade documents are still on paper. As a result, banks struggle to collect accurate, real-time data to judge an SME's creditworthiness.

What CDI does. The HKMA's Commercial Data Interchange (CDI), launched in 2022, is a consent-based channel that lets businesses share data held by public and private sources with banks. Four years into full operation, Lee said, it connects 17 data sources with 28 banks. The headline result comes from the HKMA's own study: banks that make more active use of alternative data through CDI charge, on average, 36 basis points lower interest rates. Project Cargox extends the same approach to cargo and trade data for trade finance.

What the claim rests on. The 36-basis-point figure is the HKMA's estimate from its own study, and the remarks do not give its method; it shows an association between CDI use and loan pricing as reported by the authority that runs the system.

Source: Hong Kong Monetary Authority, Howard Lee, opening remarks at the Cargox Solution Day, Hong Kong, 5 October 2026 (BIS central bankers' speeches) — https://www.bis.org/speeches/20261013-opening-remarks-cargox-solution-day