HSBC Malta introduces innovative digital solutions for local businesses

HSBC Malta has rolled out various digital solutions to the business community in Malta during the Covid-19 pandemic. These solutions, designed to help businesses continue operating in these challenging times, together with the bank’s future plans for digitisation, were outlined during a recent webinar titled ‘Re-engineering for the future’, organised by The Malta Chamber as part of the SME Week.

The webinar was addressed by Emanuele Vignoli, Head of Global Liquidity and Cash Management, UK Non-Ring-fenced Bank and Europe International Markets at HSBC, who explained how the bank has introduced mobile authentication and the use of soft tokens, giving business owners easy and secure access to their accounts. The introduction of live online chat specifically for business customers has further enhanced the level of digital service being offered. Throughout this period, HSBC has been proactive in reaching out to its business customers to provide advice on how best to use the digital channels available.

The SME Week focussed on efforts to raise digital awareness among businesses owners and to support enterprises who are planning to scale up their activities. In this context, HSBC Malta is committed to introducing Treasury application programming interfaces (APIs) to enable customers to initiate, track, request and receive payments in real time.

Furthermore, HSBC Malta has committed to work on innovations towards enhanced mitigation of cyber-crime risk and has embarked on education initiatives on cyber fraud by raising awareness via anti-fraud messages and on-screen warning alerts. The bank has also held refresher sessions on fraud reporting for internal teams to equip them with the skills to raise customers’ vigilance relating to fraud and to directly support Malta’s welfare, jobs, innovation, and competitiveness.

“HSBC has delivered the capability for businesses in Malta to integrate their internal systems and infrastructure to HSBC via APIs,” Vignoli said.

“Business owners, Treasurers and Financial Controllers need real-time access to information, globally, to support liquidity management and cash flow forecasting. As a consequence, customers are digitising payments and collections processes to leverage new opportunities and refine their business models, which is increasingly important as they navigate the current pandemic.”