Hang Seng has approved $60m of SME loans with HKMA’s account data sharing model

Customers can authorize Hang Seng to directly retrieve info and data from other participating banks.

Hang Seng Bank has implemented the Hong Kong Monetary Authority’s (HKMA) Interbank Account Data Sharing (IADS) initiative.

With this, Hang Seng’s commercial customers can now authorize the bank to directly retrieve account information and data from other participating banks, the Hong Kong-headquartered bank said in a press release.

This is expected to eliminate the need for traditional documentation when applying for a loan with Hang Seng.

Hang Seng began trials for the service in August 2024 and said that it has already approved HK$60m in loans to small and medium enterprises (SMEs) through the model.

Hang Seng is also part of the first batch of participating banks in Hong Kong to successfully approve SME loans using this model.

In addition to IADS, Hang Seng said that it is also one of the first banks in Hong Kong to integrate with HKMA's Commercial Data Interchange (CDI), which accesses commercial data with customer consent.