IBM simplifies HSBC document management with analytics tools

40 pages of documents need to be reviewed for an average transaction, and IBM is speeding the process

Working together, IBM and HSBC have developed a solution to simplify the processing of the millions of documents used every day in international commerce, utilising IBM's advanced analytics technology.

The cognitive intelligence product built by the two firms combines optical character recognition with ‘advanced' robotics. Some of the IBM solutions that are part of the toolset include intelligent segmentation and text analytics, to identify and digitise the key data within documents.

HSBC's Global Trade and Receivables Finance (GTRF) team must manually review and process as many as 100 million documents each year, ranging from invoices to packing lists and insurance certificates.

Once the documents have been digitised, it is extracted and fed into the bank's transaction processing systems; this, says HSBC, increases accuracy and frees up staff for ‘more value-adding activities'.

40 pages must be reviewed in even an average trade transaction, with multiple data fields to be extracted. The global head of HSBC's GTRF, Natalie Blyth, said, "By digitising this process we will make transactions quicker and safer for both buyers and suppliers, leading our industry forwards, and we will reduce compliance risks through an enhanced ability to manage huge volumes of data."

Roger Welch, a financial industry expert and solution architect for IBM, said, "In our experience, no trade finance solution has come as far or done as much as this new solution."

HSBC is now using the solution in Asia, Europe, the Americas and MENA to analyse English-language documents. The development team now plans to expand its use to cover Chinese, French and Spanish, among other languages.

Blyth said, "We are continuously investing in technologies that will improve the way we work for the benefit of our customers and our people. HSBC wants to be the leading bank for innovation, and initiatives like this one are key to achieving our goal."