India's ICICI Bank CEO: We continue to pay attention to blockchain technology

Rage Review : The assets of Industrial Credit Investment Bank of India rank second among private banks in India. The bank's CEO said that although uncertainties in the blockchain field still exist, it does not affect its provision of relevant technical applications to global customers, which helps to strengthen its relationship with customers. And India's unique position in the world's technological innovation obviously provides a good environment for the development of blockchain technology.

Translation: Annie_Xu

ICICI Bank, which ranks second among India’s private banks in terms of total assets, is interested in blockchain application development, said Chanda Kochhar, CEO and managing director of the bank.

In a media interview, she mentioned that banks are ready to embrace the technological changes brought about by technologies such as blockchain. Although the banking industry generally regards this technology as the biggest threat, she emphasized that banks are paying close attention to blockchain technology.

And she believes that banks should expand the scope of financial innovation.

"I am certainly not asking banks to completely trust technological innovations outside the banking system, but banks can provide these innovative technologies to customers and build more long-term and stable relationships with them."

A few weeks ago, ICICI successfully completed a transaction test on the blockchain.

ICICI has developed a dedicated distributed ledger platform in cooperation with Emirates NBD, the largest bank in the Middle East, and has already put it into use. The first transaction was completed between ICICI Mumbai and Emirates NBD Dubai, with real-time remittance. The second transaction test was a trade financing transaction, in which Dubai exported a batch of scrap steel to Mumbai, with banks, importers and exporters participating in all links and obtaining detailed data.

India’s blockchain craze escalates

ICICI is not the only large bank in India to explore blockchain transactions. Two other private financial institutions, Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra, have also announced their blockchain financial applications.

Deepak Sharma

Deepak Sharma, Chief Digital Officer, Kotak Mahindra said:

"Theory makes us believe in the potential of blockchain in the future, but we lack practical applications, and we are still discussing whether expansion can be achieved in the near future."

India has always been a world-leading technology service provider, and I believe that blockchain development will also be on the agenda, even beyond the financial industry. For example, the CEO of India's largest IT giant Tata Consultancy Services also said that it is developing "more than 100 blockchain projects" for global customers.

VISA has also established an innovation center in Bangalore, India’s IT center, to develop blockchain technology. The company plans to recruit 1,000 engineers for the research center by the end of 2016. It will also work with research centers in Singapore and the United States to develop distributed ledger solutions to upgrade the traditional payment industry.