A cross-border e-commerce owner, Ken, asked Eason: “My business is asset-light, no property to pledge. Banks keep calling my data opaque and only offer high rates. Am I stuck paying premium interest?”
Eason’s answer: “Do you know CDI?”
The Commercial Data Interchange (CDI), built by the HKMA, is data infrastructure that lets banks securely access your operating data — tax records, MPF contributions, trade documents — once you authorise it. Banks traditionally assess loans on only three things: financial statements, collateral, and credit history. Your strong cash flow stays invisible to them, so they price in a risk premium.
The 2026 Policy Address revealed a key figure: CDI has already cut corporate borrowing costs by an average of 36 basis points (0.36%). On a HKD 10M loan over 5 years, that is roughly HKD 90K in interest. How much net profit do you need to earn that?
The catch: CDI is not automatic. Its core principle is “your data, your call.” You must actively authorise the bank to access your data sources when applying. Most owners never take this step and quietly miss the savings.
Three groups should act now: asset-light businesses without fixed collateral, cross-border traders (with HK-Shanghai data links and CargoX to ASEAN ports coming), and anyone with clean tax and MPF records.
Three steps: organise your data sources, explicitly ask the bank to use CDI when applying, and compare which bank responds with better rates.
The future of collateral is not bricks; it is your data.
This is a summary of our detailed Chinese guide. Read the full story in Chinese →