HSBC has partnered with technology group IBM to bring the traditionally paper-heavy trade financing process into the digital age.

The initiative is the latest effort to make trade transactions, which HSBC said can involve as many as 15 different 40-page documents, more efficient.

The UK bank is working with IBM to use advanced robotics to identify, digitise and extract data from such documents and feed this into its own transaction processing systems.

Natalie Blyth, HSBC's head of global trade and receivables finance, 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."

The bank is already using the technology in Hong Kong and the United Arab Emirates and has plans to do so in 10 other markets, including the UK, by the end of the year.

HSBC said its global trade and receivables finance team manually reviews and processes up to 100 million pages of documents a year. This time-intensive process, which can also be subject to human error, has sparked joint projects in an effort to simplify and speed it up.

In June, a consortium of seven European banks, including HSBC, announced it had teamed up with IBM to create a blockchain-based trade finance platform for small and medium-sized businesses. And earlier this week, R3 — which has brought together more than 80 financial services firms — said it was ready to pilot an application that aims to cut costs and inefficiencies in trade financing.

IBM has been partnering with financial services firms to find ways of using blockchain technology in their day-to-day activities.

In July, alongside the London Stock Exchange the firm announced the companies were working together to use distributed ledger technology to help SMEs issue securities. And in February, custody bank Northern Trust and Swiss asset manager Unigestion said they had partnered with IBM to bring blockchain to the private equity market.