SINGAPORE - HSBC Bank has launched a digital networking platform for its business clients to connect with each other.

The HSBC Connections Hub is designed to enable the bank's clients to use HSBC's global network to connect with trusted buyers and sellers around the world.

Business customers in Singapore, Canada, Mainland China, Hong Kong, India, Mexico, Britain and the United States can now sign up to the multi-lingual platform for free.

More countries and territories will be added in the second half of the year.

Mr Richard Davies, the global head of propositions for HSBC Commercial Banking, said: "Researching and connecting with new business partners can be a daunting task, and one that gets harder with distance.

"We have designed the HSBC Connections Hub to help break down barriers for companies of all sizes that aspire to forge new business relationships at home and overseas. Every business interacting through HSBC Connections Hub is an HSBC customer, giving users the confidence that they already have one practical connection in common."

Last year, some 37,000 Singapore companies, 80 per cent of them SMEs, approached International Enterprise Singapore for help in understanding overseas markets and to connect to the right business partners, HSBC noted.

HSBC Singapore's head of business banking, Ms Ng Li Lian, said: "We see HSBC Connections Hub will further supplement the existing resources that are available to internationalising SMEs which are looking for new customers, suppliers or international partners."

As it is exclusively for HSBC customers, users can perform targeted searches and be assured that the companies they interact with on the HSBC Connections Hub have gone through the same due diligence checks and vetting that they have.

Customers create a business profile to represent their brand, including company information, products, locations and business interests.

A smart, automated search engine will then highlight potential buyers and sellers in other markets.

Alternatively, customers can search and view the profiles of specific business using variables such as location, industry or products/services. Users can send a private message to their target business partners via the HSBC Connections Hub.

HSBC customers can also explore business opportunities on the global networking platform and other users can filter the opportunities they see based on product type, value and/or location.

The personalised opportunities appear in a 'What's New' section on each user's homepage.