ICICI Bank on Wednesday announced that it has successfully executed transactions in international trade finance and remittance using blockchain technology in partnership with Emirates NBD, a leading banking group in the Middle East.

"ICICI Bank is the first bank in the country and among the first few globally to exchange and authenticate remittance transaction messages as well as original international trade documents related to purchase order, invoice, shipping & insurance, among others, electronically on blockchain in real time", the press release said.

ICICI Bank executed these pilot transactions via its blockchain network with Emirates NBD on a custom-made blockchain application, co-created with EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Infosys.

Chanda Kochhar, managing director and chief executive officer of ICICI Bank, said: "I envision that the emerging technology of blockchain will play a significant role in banking in the coming years by making complex bilateral and multi-lateral banking transactions seamless, quick and more secure".

The blockchain application co-created by ICICI Bank replicates the paper-intensive international trade finance process as an electronic decentralised ledger, that gives all the participating entities including banks the ability to access a single source of information.

This enabled all the parties, viz, the importer in Mumbai; ICICI Bank, Mumbai; the exporter in Dubai and Emirates NBD, Dubai to view the data in real time.

It also enabled them to track documentation and authenticate ownership of assets digitally, as an un-alterable ledger in real time.

This facilitated the stakeholders to execute a trade finance transaction through a series of encrypted and secure digital contracts.

Further, it allowed each participant to check online the status of the application, transfer of title and transmission of original trade documents through a secure network, while preserving client and commercial confidentiality.

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