EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly owned product subsidiary of Infosys, Emirates NBD, and ICICI Bank Limited, announced the pilot launch of blockchain network for international remittances and trade finance. Both, Emirates NBD and ICICI Bank run Finacle solutions suite and have leveraged the blockchain framework to route business transaction between the two entities for remittances and trade finance business.
Using the EdgeVerve Blockchain Framework for Financial Services, the network was successfully piloted on the UAE-India remittance corridor, one of the busiest corridors for both banks. According to the World Bank, this corridor is the largest receiver of remittances with a share of close to 70 Billion USD out of the 580+ Billion USD world over.
With this, Emirates NBD became the first bank in UAE and ICICI Bank, the first bank in India, to pilot a blockchain-based network for financial services. The exercise was started eight weeks ago and additional use cases are being explored for the pilot. Both financial institutions have started the process towards a network consortium for further participation by interested member banks to expand the transaction network. Considering its strong presence in the financial industry through Finacle suite of solutions, Emirates NBD and ICICI Bank chose to partner with EdgeVerve for the pilot. This framework is a permissioned asset-agnostic ledger, designed specifically for the banking sector. Blockchain-based applications built on this framework, can deliver enhanced automation across inter-organizational processes, transactional security and accuracy at a significantly lower cost.
On this occasion Dr. Vishal Sikka, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Director, Infosys said“Blockchain technology offers unprecedented opportunities to transform banking as we know it. 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. We are delighted to partner with ICICI Bank and Emirates NBD, who are innovation leaders in their respective regions. With this pilot, we are clearly a step closer to see mainstream adoption of blockchain-based applications. We look forward to further collaborations with our clients and other banks to create a blockchain-powered consortium in the financial services industry.”