Leading Indian private sector bank ICICI Bank has announced the on-boarding of more than 250 corporates on its blockchain platform for domestic and international trade finance, marking the most by any Indian bank, The Economic Times reported.

In 2016, the bank partnered with UAE’s leading banking group Emirates NBD to successfully conduct blockchain-based transactions in international trade finance and remittance. Since then, over 250 corporates, including ones from the ‘S&P BSE 100 Index’, have signed up for the bank’s blockchain platform.

“We were the first in the country and among few globally to pioneer cross-border open account trade finance and remittance transactions on blockchain. I am delighted to share that we have scaled up the operations to sign over 250 corporates on our blockchain solution for trade transactions, the maximum for any blockchain solution in the country,” said Chanda Kochhar, MD & CEO, ICICI Bank.

The bank’s blockchain solution digitizes the existing paper-based processes and enables all relevant parties – buyers and sellers in the home country and abroad, all branches and locations of bank in the country and overseas – to view the data in real-time. Using encrypted and secure digital contracts, it also enables them to track documentation, digitally authenticate ownership of assets, and execute a trade finance transaction.

The corporates that have signed up have undertaken various types of trade finance transactions through the bank’s blockchain platform. This includes cross-border remittance for salary payment to employees, domestic vendor payments in another city, and payments for raw materials to a domestic channel partner, among others.

“In another initiative, we are also collaborating with peer banks and other partners to create a comprehensive ecosystem in the industry using blockchain and evolve common working standards to contribute to even greater adoption of this initiative,” added Kochhar.