Page 26 - Banking Finance January 2022

ARTICLE

blockchain are not directly linked to the real world identities terming them as a 'virtual currency' would be incorrect. It
but with enough efforts one can trace back a transaction then proceeded towards briefly explaining the main concept
to the source. Hence, pseudo anonymity while assures behind blockchain and how is blockchain incorporated in
unidentifiability but does not guarantee it.The court ruled Bitcoin. Instances were provided on how the 'limitation
in the favour of the virtual currency exchanges and ordered ofproof of work' and the inefficient system of the virtual
RBI to take back its orders. currency exchanges is being exploited by hackers rendering
cryptocurrencies to actually not be 'fool proof'.
Government of India is also preparing to introduce 'the
Cryptocurrency and Regulation of Official Digital Currency Throughout this paper we try to refrain from putting forward
Bill' to regulate cryptocurrencies, in the Winter session of any personal opinion around cryptocurrencies instead we
Parliament this year. The Bill seeks to prohibit all private have to present the facts as documented in the official
cryptocurrencies in India; however, it plans to allow the resources. We encourage the reader of this document to
technology underlying cryptocurrencies, i.e., Block-chain, personally read in depth about the topics touched here and
and its uses. The Bill also plans to create a facilitative personally understand the scope and limitations of this
framework for creation of the official digital currency to be technology.
issued by the Reserve Bank of India.
Disclaimer:
Conclusion Information from Various public sources have been utilized
The paper began by defining cryptocurrencies and how for writing this Article. T

ICICI Bank on-boards 70 leading corporates on its digital platform

'CorpConnect'

ICICI Bank today announced that it has on-boarded 70 leading companies on 'CorpConnect', the digital platform that
it launched last year to enable corporates to undertake instant payments and collections to/from their channel part-
ners. 'CorpConnect', a first-of-its kind initiative, also offers instant and collateral free digital channel financing solu-
tions such as dealer finance for distributors and vendor finance/ reverse factoring for suppliers.
The list of these companies include ArcelorMittal Nippon Steel India Ltd., Asian Paints Ltd., Blue Star Ltd., Crompton
Greaves Consumer Electricals Ltd., Exide Industries Ltd., Hero Cycles Ltd., Hindustan Unilever Ltd., Kansai Nerolac
Paints Ltd., Nayara Energy Ltd., Orient Electric Ltd., Somany Ceramics Ltd., V-Guard Industries Ltd. and Voltas Ltd. (in
alphabetical order) among others. These companies- many of them are members of the 'S&P BSE 200 Index'- repre-
sent various industries namely FMCG, consumer durables, auto ancillaries, steel, oil, cement, textiles, paints, tiles/
sanitary wares, pipes, chemicals, engineering goods and agriculture commodities.

Through 'CorpConnet', companies can directly integrate with the Bank's systems and embed the banking solutions
such as channel financing, vendor bill/ invoice discounting, payable finance and factoring within their ERP systems.
This can be done either with API integration with the Bank or with host-to-host SFTP (Secure File Transfer Protocol)
solution. The use of these cutting-edge technologies reduces integration time significantly, thereby enhancing opera-
tional and financial efficiencies of the companies significantly.
Speaking on the announcement, Mr. Anuj Bhargava, Head- Global Clients Group, ICICI Bank said, "ICICI Bank believes
in leveraging the latest technology to bring in new and improved digital banking solutions to its customers. In line
with the philosophy, we launched 'CorpConnect' last year to help companies and their channel partners with the fa-
cility of seamless collection/payment, reconciliation and financing on a day-to-day basis. We are pleased to share that
we have on-boarded 70 leading corporates on 'CorpConnect'.
'CorpConnect' undertakes average monthly transactions worth few thousand crores of rupees. We believe that
'CorpConnect' has immense potential to simplify the document-intensive supply chain management by bringing all
stakeholders on a single platform and providing them with instant, digital and seamless solutions."

26 | 2022 | JANUARY | BANKING FINANCE