Published Date:  May 03, 2017

The Commercial Bank Successfully Completes a Pilot on a Cloud-Based Blockchain Network With Infosys Finacle

Published Date: May 03, 2017

Bangalore & Doha – May 03, 2017: Infosys Finacle, part of EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly owned subsidiary of Infosys (NYSE: INFY), and The Commercial Bank, Qatar’s first private bank, along with its subsidiary and associates (“Group”), today announced the successful completion of a pilot on the first ever cloud-based blockchain network to process international remittances. Commercial Bank, along with its subsidiary Alternatifbank (“ABank”) in Turkey and its associates National Bank of Oman (“NBO”) in Oman and United Arab Bank (“UAB”) in the UAE, have formed a grid for routing cross border business transactions across the India-GCC corridor. This is among the busiest remittances corridor in the world, as per the World Bank report.

The blockchain network of Commercial Bank Group was created in a matter of weeks, independent of the underlying core banking systems at each of the banks. The network is built on an asset-agnostic cloud-based ledger with which the banks are able to automate inter-organizational processes, reducing the risk of fraud and enabling greater transparency. The permissioned network eliminates the need for intermediaries, enabling the banks to settle customer payment requests on a real-time basis.

In the next phase of this project, the Commercial Bank will focus on trade finance transactions, particularly the transmission of secure documents and smart contracts. The blockchain network powered by Infosys Finacle, will allow all trade finance transactions to be paperless, further simplifying the process of digital exchange of purchase orders and invoices. The banks can exchange and authenticate original international trade documents electronically in real time, as against several days which was earlier the accepted norm. The solution will deliver enhanced transactional security and higher accuracy at lower costs.

Quotes

Joseph Abraham, Chief Executive Officer, Commercial Bank:
“This pilot has demonstrated the immense potential of blockchain to provide the best customer experience for our clients and given us a glimpse of what more we could do on this powerful platform. We are delighted with the success of this pilot across the Commercial Bank Group and want to expand our cluster to form closed group networks for trade and cash transactions with more banks in South Asia, Egypt, Philippines, UAE and other countries with higher transaction volumes. We hope to leverage what is quickly becoming the largest emerging consortium, in terms of transactions, and offer a wider range of products and services to individuals and organizations alike, on this platform.”

Samir El-Sheikh, Chief Operating Officer, Commercial Bank:
“It is essential that the Commercial Bank leverages the latest in technology to build our business models and offer best-in-class experience for our clients. The blockchain framework powered by Infosys Finacle has given us an ideal platform to enhance our customer experience through this pilot program for cross border remittances. We look forward to exceeding client expectations when we go-live on the trade finance module, which will have many more innovative use cases.”

Sanat Rao, Chief Business Officer and Global Head, Infosys Finacle:
“The adoption of a cloud-based blockchain network by the Commercial Bank Group is a pioneering step, where they will automate the remittances and trade finance processes to deliver significant cost savings and enhanced customer experience. We are looking forward to expand on the current use cases and develop this pilot as a model for other progressive banking groups.”

About Infosys Finacle

Finacle is the industry-leading universal banking solution from EdgeVerve Systems, a wholly owned product subsidiary of Infosys. The solution helps financial institutions develop deeper connections with stakeholders, power continuous innovation, and accelerate growth in the digital world. Today, Finacle is the choice of banks across 94 countries, and serves over 848 million consumers – estimated to be nearly 16.5 percent of the world’s adult banked population.

Finacle solutions address core banking, online banking, mobile banking, CRM, payments, treasury, origination, liquidity management, Islamic banking, wealth management, and analytics needs of financial institutions worldwide. Assessment of the top 1000 banks in the world reveals that institutions powered by Finacle enjoy 50 percent higher returns on assets, 30 percent higher returns on capital, and 8.1 percent points lesser costs to income than others.

To know more, visit www.finacle.com.

Safe Harbor

Certain statements in this release concerning our future growth prospects are forward-looking statements regarding our future business expectations intended to qualify for the ‘safe harbor’ under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which involve a number of risks and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in such forward-looking statements. The risks and uncertainties relating to these statements include, but are not limited to, risks and uncertainties regarding fluctuations in earnings, fluctuations in foreign exchange rates, our ability to manage growth, intense competition in IT services including those factors which may affect our cost advantage, wage increases in India, our ability to attract and retain highly skilled professionals, time and cost overruns on fixed-price, fixed-time frame contracts, client concentration, restrictions on immigration, industry segment concentration, our ability to manage our international operations, reduced demand for technology in our key focus areas, disruptions in telecommunication networks or system failures, our ability to successfully complete and integrate potential acquisitions, liability for damages on our service contracts, the success of the companies in which Infosys has made strategic investments, withdrawal or expiration of governmental fiscal incentives, political instability and regional conflicts, legal restrictions on raising capital or acquiring companies outside India, and unauthorized use of our intellectual property and general economic conditions affecting our industry. Additional risks that could affect our future operating results are more fully described in our United States Securities and Exchange Commission filings including our Annual Report on Form 20-F for the fiscal year ended March 31, 2016. These filings are available at www.sec.gov. Infosys may, from time to time, make additional written and oral forward-looking statements, including statements contained in the company’s filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission and our reports to shareholders. In addition, please note that the date of this press release is mentioned at the beginning of the release, and any forward-looking statements contained herein are based on assumptions that we believe to be reasonable as of this date. The company does not undertake to update any forward-looking statements that may be made from time to time by or on behalf of the company unless it is required by law.

For further information, please contact:

Infosys

Asia Pacific
Sarah Gideon
Infosys, India
+91 80 4156 3998
Sarah_Gideon@infosys.com

EMEA
Margherita Di Cerbo
Infosys, Europe
Phone: +44 2075162748
Margherita.dicerbo@infosys.com

Americas
Chiku Somaiya
Infosys, USA
+1 408 375 2722
Chiku.Somaiya@infosys.com

Commercial Bank

Mona Abdallah
EGM, Chief Marketing Officer
+974 440 0169
m.abdallah@cbq.qa