Standard Chartered and Huawei have announced that they are developing an Internet of Things (IoT) powered solution that could revolutionise the way corporates communicate with banks for financing or payments. Rather than corporates having to manually initiate these transactions through paper-based or emailed instructions, corporates’ and banks systems will be able to ‘speak’ to each other in real-time, triggering financing or payment instructions through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). 

The solution, unveiled during Huawei Connected 2018 in Shanghai last week, combines IoT and cloud capabilities so the bank will be able to track the movement of goods on a real-time basis, reducing operational risks and providing reliable data that can be used in financing decisions. Availability of real-time data enables straight-through processing for a wider class of use cases and can significantly reduce turn-around times, opening up possibilities for a broader range of financing solutions for manufacturers and their distributors.

The IoT solution uses Huawei’s OceanConnect, an open platform built on IoT, cloud computing, and Big Data technologies.  With a cloud-based unified IoT device management capability as its core, it links up with connected devices and collects real-time data through a series of agents while providing user-friendly open APIs to application developers to design and orchestrate the business process.

Commenting on the partnership with Huawei, Dr Michael Gorriz, Group CIO of Standard Chartered said: “We are committed to delivering financial solutions to our clients across our diverse footprint and to bank businesses of all sizes. Technology can change the fundamental way we do banking. We found in Huawei a strong partner who shares our passion to transform the way we would like to support our clients and make banking seamless and effortless for them through the application of cutting-edge Internet of Things technology. We look forward to piloting the solution with clients and working with Huawei and other technology partners to explore new use cases.”

Qiu Lei, Vice President of Marketing and Product Solution Sales of Huawei Enterprise Business Group, said: “It is Huawei’s mission to help create a fully connected, intelligent world as more industries adopt IoT and embark on their digital transformation journey. In the face of the challenges within the journey, technology is often only part of the solution. Determination and vision are equally critical. We partner with Standard Chartered for their strong determination and great vision from the very top echelon of the company to support their clients when it comes to digital transformation.”

Standard Chartered has been actively working with tech companies to co-develop solutions to improve client experience and increase efficiency. Earlier this year, Standard Chartered set up SC Ventures, a business unit to catalyse intrapreneurship and innovation, invest in fintechs, and set up disruptive ventures. SC Studios, in Silicon Valley, allows them to connect with the latest technologies, tech companies, fintech and investor communities.