China’s foreign exchange reserve regulator, the State Administration of Foreign Exchange (SAFE), has been working together with the Hangzhou Blockchain Technology Research Institute to promote greater efficiency in global trade finance.

According to the report (Apr 24), these two institutions have developed a blockchain system that uses multi-signature technology to keep trading content private. Only the firms involved in the transactions and regulators relating to customs, taxation, industry, and commerce can see the details.

Traditionally, China’s import and export trade financing largely based on manual, paper-based processing. Because of this, the industry is inefficient, has high operational risk and costly financing fee.

By putting the financial data on a distributed network, transactions could be processed quicker, with fewer mistakes and information can now be shared transparently and in real-time. Firms will be able to access data of financing, audits, loans, and repayment, thus, the new system can reportedly improve operational efficiency and security and reduce costs.

The report further mentioned that SAFE intends to pilot the blockchain platform for six months in the provinces of Jiangsu, Zhejiang and Fujian and two cities, Shanghai and Chongqing. After that, the plan is to embrace the platform nationwide, with many banks said to be involved in the scheme, including the Bank of China.

Previously, the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) unveiled the official service names and corresponding filing registration numbers of its first batch of 197 blockchain firms, reported by The Crypto Sight on Apr 6.