Client Name

HBL

Faculty Advisor

Dr. Usman Nazir

SBS Thought Leadership Areas

Entrepreneurship and Innovation

SBS Thought Leadership Area Justification

Its about about how banks and fintechs are figuring out ways to use digital platforms to fix the kind of financing problems that businesses actually run into.

Aligned SDGs

GOAL 8: Decent Work and Economic Growth

Aligned SDGs Justification

SCF helps SMEs and other supply chain participants actually get access to working capital which is something a lot of them struggle with, and when that happens it supports business growth and economic activity more broadly.

NDA

No

Abstract

This Experiential Learning Project is basically about how Supply Chain Finance is turning digital in Pakistan and where HBL stands when you compare it to some other banks in the market. We wanted to have a standard across which we judge all banks equally so this report uses a 10 point framework to compare these banks across things like digital platform presence, product range, internal setup, partnerships, target customers, maturity level, credit risk data, loan structure and automation capabilities.

The banks selected for this study are all at different points in their digital SCF journey (banks were selected after discussing with the client). HBL has a solid SCF product range and a team dedicated to it but the digital platform is still in its early launch phase. Meezan Bank is more advanced on the digital side because it has an actual platform called Wisaaq and its also tied up with partners like Haball, Fauree and CashNow which gives it an edge. Bank of Punjab has an active SCF product and some signs of digital collaboration although no name of a digital SCF platform was found in the sources that were reviewed. National Bank of Pakistan has the most unique approach since they are testing multiple applications currently, out of which, they will purchase one based on whichever one they find most suitable. Soneri Bank has a decent cash management platform but not much public information is available about a dedicated digital SCF setup.

What the findings show is that digital SCF adoption isn't the same for all banks. Some already have a platform that has been launched and are connected to fintechs for the process while some are still at the basic product stage or just begining to digitalize. The biggest strength that HBL has is that it has a very wide product portfolio which covers supplier finance, distributor finance, retailer finance, receivable discounting, payable finance, guarantee solutions and fleet or logistics finance. This means that HBL can cater to different types of clients across supply chain rather than restricting themselves to just one or few types of customers.

But the most urgent problem for HBL right now is platform maturity. The bank is currently working on the process of digitizing payment streams but currently and although they plan to launch the service on the application that is already in use, the features have not been added to the application yet so there is no live end to end digital platform. Based on what the analysis shows, HBL needs to focus on getting its platform live as soon as possible, making anchor and supplier onboarding smoother, improving how digital systems work together and positioning itself as a bank that covers the entire supply chain ecosystem. If HBL is able to pull this off the right way, it can become a much stronger player in Pakistan's growing digital SCF market.

Document Type

Restricted Access

Document Name for Citation

Experiential Learning Project

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