YES BANK, India’s fourth largest private sector bank, as an issuing and paying agent (IPA), facilitated the issuance of a Commercial Paper (CP) of INR 100 Crores using Blockchain technology for Vedanta Limited, a natural resources conglomerate. This is the first time in Asia that a CP has been digitally issued using Blockchain technology.Asit Oberoi, Senior Group President and Global Head Transaction Banking Group and Chief Experience Officer, YES BANK, said,” YES BANK is proud to implement Asia’s first Commercial Paper issuance over Blockchain technology for the Vedanta Limited. This solution is a yet another milestone in YES BANK’s endeavor to remain ahead of the innovation curve & enhance end client experience. Apart from reducing operational risk and costs, this technology solution lays the foundation for a more transparent and efficient process to cater to India’s growing Commercial Paper market.”
The digital solution ensures an efficient, transparent and secure mechanism for CP issuance and redemption. This transaction was completed in partnership with MonetaGo, a leading provider of financial technology headquartered in New York, USA. MonetaGo built the solution using Corda Enterprise, technology provided by R3, a leading enterprise Blockchain software firm. As part of the business solutioning, the stakeholders in the CP issuance and redemption benefit from Reduction in Turnaround Time (TAT) for issuance and redemption, Immutable digital records of the entire transaction documents thereby reducing operational risk, Real-time Visibility of the CP issuance and redemption and Common Network for all participants in the CP issuance and redemption process Jesse Chenard, CEO, MonetaGo, said, “This is a real milestone for our company, for the technology, and for the Indian Banking Community. We have been working with YES BANK and Vedanta very closely and have been continuously impressed with their ability to leverage technology to bring about large scale change. These are big corporations with the ability to move like start-ups, something very rare indeed especially when dealing with a market this size.”
Speaking on the implementation, Vinod Bahety, Head-Corporate Infrastructure Banking & Corporate Banking, YES BANK said, “We are extremely pleased to partner with Vedanta and this first of its kind transaction reaffirms YES BANK’s strong commitment to bringing customized financial solutions through innovative practices and knowledge banking approach to the infrastructure sector. We believe that such pioneering solutions will significantly ease the commercial paper issuance process for regular issuers.”
GR Arun Kumar, Group CFO, Vedanta Group, said, “Vedanta will benefit from the digitized and simplified workflow which shortens the laborious process running into hours to just few minutes and complete transparency that this platform offers to all stakeholders.”
