Two top banks in the United Arab Emirates and India are spearheading blockchain initiatives in their perspective markets thanks to a new collaboration with software conglomerate Infosys, reports said Monday (Nov. 28).
Emirates NBD in the UAE and ICICI Bank in India are the first banks in their nations to pilot a blockchain network to explore the use of distributed ledger technology for trade finance and international remittances, the firms said. They'll be working with Infosys subsidiary EdgeVerve Systems.
Together, Emirates NBD and ICICI Bank will use their blockchain framework to transact between each other for trade finance and remittance purposes. They'll use the EdgeVerve Blockchain Framework for Financial Services product, reports added. The banks will use blockchain to trade invoices, purchase orders, invoice financing processes and other trade finance transactions in near real-time, the banks noted. Infosys also said the automation of these inter-bank processes will lead to significant cost savings for the financial institutions and more accurate monitoring of the exchange of funds and documents.
While their initial efforts will target trade finance and remittances, the companies said they'll explore other use cases for the technology in the future.
"Blockchain technology offers unprecedented opportunities to transform banking as we know it," stated Infosys Chief Executive Officer and Managing Director Dr. Vishal Sikka in a statement. "Like any innovative technology, the usage of blockchain-based applications will gradually increase from early adopters to others who will join based on proven and tangible benefits."
"With this pilot, we are clearly a step closer to see mainstream adoption of blockchain-based applications," he continued.
Emirates NBD and ICICI Bank both highlighted the disruptive nature of blockchain and the potential for their collaboration to break new ground in their nations' banking sectors.
