State Bank of India will soon have a blockchain-based exchange for bad debts along with other banks, asset reconstruction companies and investors on the same infrastructure, according to Sudin Baraokar, Head Innovation, SBI.

India’s largest public sector bank, which is also among the top 40 globally, will implement four or five blockchain-ready business solutions.

With Indian banks saddled with an estimated $210 billion of non-performing assets (NPAs), of which over $30 billion are with SBI alone, a blockchain-based exchange will provide a common platform that will enable data-driven price discovery. Similarly, trade finance and loan exchanges are also planned, he said.

Blockchain, a unified IT infrastructure for which SBI is working with over 30 banks, including public sector, cooperative and foreign banks, and global companies in IT, will be the next big step for the bank.

SBI was among the early adopters of IT and has a core banking solution that is benchmarked for over two billion transactions a day, about 23,000 a second, with over 550 million accounts, he said.

Addressing a seminar on emerging trends in financial services organised by business and management consulting firm EY, he said a unified infrastructure with all related participants on board will help avoid debacles like the recent bank guarantee/LoU-related frauds. Everybody will know the origin of a transactions and the entity responsible for its final settlement, he pointed out.

SBI is keen on building innovation in collaboration with international players and start-ups to bring down development time for technology-based financial services, Baraokar said.

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