SBI to introduce blockchain technology in December
Posted on: 21/Nov/2017 12:29:09 PM
State Bank of India, the largest lender in the country is set to make use of blockchain technology from next month. This shall be implemented for smart contracts and Know Your Customer, said Sudin Baraokar, the head of innovation of SBI.
The beta production solution shall be ready by next month. And it shall be used across 27 banks. Further participation shall also be invited. Smart contracts and KYC shall be done through beta production, said Baraokar.
A consortium called BankChain was launched in February for making best use of the blockchain technology. There are at present 27 members for Blockchain across India and Middle East.
To develop these solutions, BankChain and Primechain Technologies in Pune have joined hands with each other. There are 22 Indian banks in it including ICICI bank, DCB bank and Axis bank.
BankChain is a huge initiative. This is a way to collaborate all banks and bring them all together. It is a method of de-risking the investment in the emerging tech so as to bring all the banks at a single point. Sharing knowledge and reducing cost are also possible through this. This can be taken forward using the technical teams of one other banks. Solutions that the banks don’t have are kept as the factor of focus. Small contracts and others are the focus here.
Smart contracts make use of blockchain technology where all the contracts between parties are maintained. These contracts can be used as a replacement for non-disclosure agreement or signing forms. Internal processes can also be contracted. IT procurement and many others can be implemented with this blockchain.
Apart from blockchain, SBI is also figuring out the other budding technologies like Artificial intelligence and machine learning and robotic process automation.
And innovation Centre is being set up in Navi Mumbai. This is likely to get completed by mid of next year. A number of hackathons will also be set up for incubating startup firms and invite vendors and internal talents for guiding select start-ups.
With an aim to explore AI, ML, blockchain, RPA, visualization predictive analytics, etc., an innovation center is likely to be set up. All these solutions shall be collaborated and developed. This will function as a physical innovation center at the IT headquarters at Navi Mumbai. The designing phase is currently taking place. A dedicated innovation fund is allocated. This will probably get ready by mid of 2018, said Baraokar.
