TCS Launches New Blockchain-based Digital Bank Guarantee Platform in Israel: Bank Hapoalim First to Sign Up
Mumbai: Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) (BSE: 532540, NSE: TCS), a leading global IT services, consulting, and business solutions organization, has launched a new transformative Digital Bank Guarantee platform, powered by the Quartz® Blockchain solution, as part of the Banking Service Bureau (BSB), operated by TCS for the digital banking industry in Israel. Bank Hapoalim, Israel’s largest bank that currently manages more than 30% of the total bank guarantees in the country, has signed up as the anchor customer for the platform.
TCS’ Digital Bank Guarantee SaaS platform runs on Microsoft Azure and helps banks digitally transform the end-to-end lifecycle of guarantees, including issuance, modification, termination, and invocation. Support for open APIs defined by various beneficiaries – such as government entities, corporates, SMEs and individuals – enables seamless sharing of data with them, eliminating the need for separate individual interfaces. The use of hyper-automation will help banks improve speed of execution, reduce fraud and manual errors, and enhance transparency, security, and data privacy.
This platform will function as a marketplace where both issuers and beneficiaries can manage their digital guarantees portfolio, including issuance, extension, and cancelation. Issuers that join the platform will enable their customers to benefit from this mutualized solution conforming to the Accountant General standard. Aggregators can also use it to offer their customers a managed platform for their digital guarantees, and corporates can directly connect to their internal systems.
Dov Kotler, CEO, Bank Hapoalim, said, “We have always been an early adopter and pioneer in the usage of new age technology and us signing up with TCS is another trend-setting initiative, which we believe will soon be emulated by other banks and insurance firms in Israel. Rolling out new technology such as Quartz Blockchain to digitize bank guarantees will help our customers with simpler, easier, transparent and optimized processes. With this solution, we will be extending our client base to include corporates, SMEs and individuals who will soon be able to access their digital bank guarantees across its life cycle through APIs and an intuitive web portal.”
N Ganapathy Subramaniam, COO, TCS, said, “Quartz Blockchain has the power to enable ecosystems that transform how business transactions are done today. The digital bank guarantee project in Israel is a landmark initiative that leverages Quartz Smart Ledgers to create a unique and elegant solution that brings together market players around a secure distributed ledger for bank guarantees. This project, delivered through our Banking Services Bureau, is the first of many such ecosystems that we will be participating in globally, for digital financial documents.”
The blockchain-based Digital Bank Guarantee platform from Quartz is an example of digital transformation refining the end customer experience across ecosystems, as multiple issuers, banks, insurers, government bodies, SMEs and individuals will benefit from access to a SaaS-based platform that provides data privacy, immutability, traceability and real-time processing. The Quartz solution will create a dedicated blockchain node for issuers through which the digital guarantees will be transmitted securely. This end-to-end solution will serve as a blockchain ecosystem that can support additional use cases over time, not only in the region but also globally.
Quartz – The Smart Ledgers
Quartz, The Smart Ledgers, is a startup incubated by TCS, and provides foundational technology, tools and business components for creating distributed ledger solutions across varied industries.
Built on the core principles of Coexistence, Integration and Interoperability, Quartz enables existing systems to coexist and integrate with blockchain platforms and other messaging networks. With data masking, privacy and anonymity–the premise on which the solutions are designed–organizations can focus on enhancing their core competitive strengths in an environment of utmost security.
With Quartz, you can also facilitate the creation of a complete distributed ledger ecosystem for stakeholders in your value chain. Quartz caters to organizations across Industry segments including Financial Services, Banking, Supply Chain, Energy & Utilities and eGovernance.
To know more about Quartz, please visit: https://www.tcs.com/quartz-blockchain-solutions