Infosys Finacle launches blockchain-based trade finance solutions for banks

Infosys Finacle, part of the country's second-largest information technology (IT) firm Infosys, on Wednesday launched a blockchain-based trade finance solution for banks.

The solution — Finacle Trade Connect — will help digitise the trade finance business process, including validation of ownership, certifying documents and making payments.

It is available for functions including bill collection, letters of credit and invoice financing among others.

"We had launched a pilot trade finance network for banks to trial this solution. For this, 11 banks in India partnered with us," Infosys Finacle Chief Business Officer Sanat Rao told PTI.

He, however, did not name the banks.

Blockchain is a huge, decentralised ledger for bitcoin (digital currency) that records every transaction and stores this information on a global network so it cannot be tampered with.

It enables secure, peer-to-peer transactions that can be verified without any centralised authority.

Banks and other financial institutions are increasingly investing in blockchain technology as it cuts their costs and make their operations faster and more transparent.

Rao said the new solution will provide higher automation, increase transparency and enable real-time availability of data.

This will enable better decision making and opening up new business avenues for both banks and corporates, he added.

The framework is ledger agnostic and is capable of working with most industry leading blockchain platforms such as Bitcoin, Hyperledger, Ethereum and Corda, he said.