Krungsri, one of the largest banks in Thailand, and tech giant IBM have developed a blockchain-based system to streamline the bank’s contract management process across its offerings.

In its official release, the bank said that with the growing number of agreements exchanged with its subsidiaries, it sought to improve the Related Party Transaction (RPT) process efficiency between the transacting parties by automating contract management processes using blockchain technology. The blockchain-based digitized paperwork process has made information secured, transaction transparent, with increased operation efficiency and reduction of operation duration, it said.

“We started conducting test runs of the pilot project last year and the results have been satisfactory”, Voranuch Dejakaisaya, Krungsri Chief Information and Operations Officer, said. “The goal is to digitize the paperwork process, store document contents with authentication and approval information in the blockchain-based database, and expand this service platform across the Bank and our subsidiaries.”

Working with the IBM Cloud Garage team, the bank was able to turn the initial concepts into reality within three months using the Hyperledger Fabric and blockchain services on IBM Cloud. Hyperledger Composer was also used as the development toolset and framework to accelerate the development of the blockchain application.

“The success of Krungsri’s blockchain-based contract management pilot project demonstrates the high impact the technology can have on the financial industry. IBM is honored to collaborate with Krungsri to bring efficiency and transparency to contract management process, and to together reach this new milestone of financial innovation in Thailand,” said Parnsiree Amatayakul, Managing Director, IBM Thailand.

Dejakaisaya said that the bank expects the project to upgrade its back-office efficiency, while digitizing physical documents. The blockchain-based system ensures fewer errors and more security.