A New York based bank has announced plans to extend its reach in the trade services sector by moving aspects of its documentary examination process closer to the source of origin.

Sterling National Bank, the principal banking subsidiary of Sterling Bancorp said it had obtained regulatory approval to establish Sterling National Asia Limited, its new trade service company in Hong Kong. This facility aims to provide an enhanced service to the bank's clients who actively trade with Asia.

Builds on online L/Cs

According to Sterling Bancorp's chairman, Louis J Capelli, the new initiative builds on recent improvements in its trade financing facilities: "As part of our strategic initiative to extend and grow Sterling's trade services business unit we have made considerable investments to fully automate that department. The ability of our clients to transmit their letter of credit applications to us electronically makes Sterling more efficient, and also saves our clients considerable processing time and enables them to monitor and manage transactions online."

Closer to customers

Capelli believes the new facility in Hong Kong is "the next logical step of moving certain aspects of our documentary examination process closer to thesource of origin."

Sterling announced its latest trade finance initiative in a statement issued minutes before the devastating 11 September events in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania. Sterling Bancorp is headquartered in New York's financial district and has operations in the metropolitan New York and Washington DC areas and throughout the US.

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