Infosys Finacle Partners Hatton National Bank to Pioneer Blockchain-Based Trade Finance in Sri Lanka

Bengaluru & Colombo – March 12, 2019

Infosys Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Infosys (NYSE: INFY) announced that Hatton National Bank (HNB), a leading private sector commercial bank operating in Sri Lanka, has selected Finacle Trade Connect to enable a blockchain-based domestic and cross-border trade finance network. The Finacle Trade Connect solution will be used by HNB to pilot a trade network with other corresponding banking partners and its corporate clients. The network is expected to help HNB and other participating entities substantially increase automation and transparency, while efficiently managing risks in trade and supply chain financing operations.

Highlights

• Finacle Trade Connect will help digitize trade finance business processes, including validation of ownership, certification of documents etc., while working on a distributed, trusted and shared network.
• Along with higher automation and increased transparency, banks will gain real-time availability of data for better decision making and creation of new business avenues
• Trade Connect supports a full suite of trade and supply chain finance products such as Open Account, Letter of Credit, Invoice Financing, Bills Collection, PO Financing and Bank Guarantees.
• Banks, buyers and sellers will be able to maintain a direct relationship on the Finacle Trade Connect powered network and connect with each other on digital channels.
• Further, the pilot network will allow for instant transfer of messages and documents between the parties involved in a completely secure manner reducing lifecycle turnaround time.
• Banks will be secure from technology evolution risks as the Finacle Trade Connect is agnostic to underlying blockchain infrastructure such as Hyper ledger, Corda, Ethereum and Bitcoin.

Quotes:

Sanat Rao, Chief Business Officer, Infosys Finacle, said, “Blockchain technology offers unprecedented opportunities to transform banking, with advantages increasing exponentially with increased collaboration. We have pioneered multiple solutions to help our clients take advantage of this emerging technology to realize real business benefits. We are excited to collaborate with HNB in this promising journey and look forward to more partners joining the network.”

Alenka Grealish, Senior Analyst, Celent, said, “Critical to blockchain’s achieving economic viability is scalability. The addition of a new client using Finacle Trade Connect is a promising sign. Early this year, Celent recognized the India Trade Connect, a blockchain-based domestic trade finance platform powered by Finacle Trade Connect, with the 2018 Model Bank award. The India Trade Connect consortium recognized that they needed a strong tech partner to provide the ecosystem infrastructure.”

About Hatton National Bank

HNB was recognised by the prestigious Banker Magazine as one of the Top 1000 banks in the world and is also the highest ranked local bank in this listing. Over the recent past, HNB has also been adjudged Best Retail Bank 2018 by The Asian Banker Magazine in addition to being declared Best SME Bank, Best Digital Bank and the Best Cash Management Bank in Sri Lanka at the Asiamoney Awards 2018. HNB was also named by Euromoney as the Best Corporate Cash Management Bank in Sri Lanka for 2018, in addition to being awarded Best Retail Bank and Best Micro Finance Bank at the International Finance Awards 2018 and being ranked among the Most Admired Companies in Sri Lanka by the International Chamber of Commerce and Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA). HNB also stands as the highest ranked bank in Sri Lanka by LMD and Business Today magazines. HNB became the first Sri Lankan bank to obtain an international credit rating and was assigned a foreign currency issuer rating of B1 on par with the sovereign rating by Moody’s Investors Service, while it has a national long term rating of AA- (lka) by Fitch Ratings (Lanka) Ltd.

About Infosys Finacle

Finacle is the industry-leading digital banking solution suite from EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly owned product subsidiary of Infosys. Finacle helps traditional and emerging financial institutions drive truly digital transformation to achieve frictionless customer experiences, larger ecosystem play, insights–driven interactions and ubiquitous automation. Today, banks in over 100 countries rely on Finacle to service more than a billion consumers and 1.3 billion accounts.

Finacle solutions address the core banking, omnichannel banking, payments, treasury, origination, liquidity management, Islamic banking, wealth management, analytics, artificial intelligence, and blockchain requirements of financial institutions to drive business excellence. An assessment of the top 1250 banks in the world reveals that institutions powered by the Finacle Core Banking solution, on average, enjoy 7.2% points lower costs-to-income ratio than others.

To know more, visit www.finacle.com