It will have competition. In the UK, Tal- near-real-time high-value transactions lysticks is building a blockchain SCF between different companies. This proof platform driven by companies need for Both these solutions are limited by the of concept shows how powerful such an automated solution – the firm has use of the permissioned blockchain. technology can be and how it can be uti- filed four patented processes, including While adding more banks and compa- lised as an effective and efficient response automated custodial transfer and auto- nies to the list of approved counterparties to the main issues that treasurers face on mated transaction settlement. is a short-term solution, in the longer a daily basis. This great achievement was term an open system would be much possible thanks to the collaboration A functioning blockchain-based supply between Panini’s Group Treasury teams chain finance/bill discounting and more likely to be transformative. and the various teams of BNP Paribas.” invoice payment solution has also been Payments implemented in India, by Mumbai’s YES Jacques Levet, Head of Transaction Bank. So far the project, using smart We’ve already seen how the blockchain is Banking EMEA at BNP Paribas CIB, contracts built on Hyperledger and uti- affecting the fundamental plumbing of commented: “This proof of concept lizing IBM’s Hybrid Cloud technology, the payments system (see article on demonstrates that blockchain technology allows consumer electrical equipment SWIFT/Ripple), but there are also initia- offers real opportunities to considerably manufacturing company Bajaj Electri- tives that bring DLT closer to treasury. improve our offer for corporate treasury cals to digitalise the process cycle for bill managers. On the payments front, this discounting at Bajaj Electricals and In December 2016, BNP Paribas com- confirms our strong commitment to reduce it from four-five days to almost pleted its first live cross-border B2B pay- follow closely and further accelerate real time. ments between corporate clients using our participation in a number of market blockchain technology, processing sev- initiatives aiming at improving the The details of invoices processed in Bajaj eral payments for two of its longstanding corporate payments experience using Electricals’ Oracle system are trans- corporate clients, Amcor, global leader blockchain technology.” ferred to Yes Bank on blockchain, and in packaging solutions and Panini then are discounted and funds are dis- Group, international leader in collecta- Visa’s bet on blockchain bursed to Bajaj’s vendors. On the due bles and trading cards. date, the solution facilitates an auto- We have also seen how re-invigorating mated debit from Bajaj Electricals’ This news follows the announcement last correspondent banking networks using account with YES Bank. September that BNP Paribas is co-devel- DLT can use the existing payment infra- oping new products and services with a structure of, for example, ACHs to pro- Again, the system ensures transparency for number of clients, aiming to design the vide corporate clients with a transformed all parties through the shared public ledger, next generation of Transaction Banking service without the need to put all their while the entire transaction history of a and Cash Management products with trust in new FinTech startups. vendor is recorded and immutable. Blockchain technology. The ‘Cash With- Partly driven by the enthusiasm of the out Borders’ proof of concept was central bank, India is a hotbed of block- launched early 2016 after the Bank’s “We are developing our new chain activity. In November 2016, for Corporate Trade and Treasury Solutions instance, the $17.8 billion multinational business embarked on a collaborative solution to give our financial Mahindra Group and IBM announced process during its first-ever ‘Blockchain institution partners an efficient, that they would co-develop a cloud- Bizhackathon’. based application for tracking supply Using Blockchain technology, BNP Pari- transparent way for payments chain transactions via blockchain. bas successfully processed and cleared to be made across the world.” However, there are certain limitations for Panini Group and Amcor payments with the closed-loop blockchain imple- in various currencies between BNP Pari- mentations that Kannan highlighted by bas bank accounts located in Germany, A similar idea lies behind the joint venture referring to the YES Bank/Bajaj Electri- the Netherlands and the United King- between Visa and Chain, a San Fran- cals case. “We define closed-loop as a dom. The payments were fully processed cisco-based enterprise blockchain infra- private network consisting of one com- and cleared in a few minutes highlighting structure startup. Again, the concept is a pany, one bank, and a set of suppliers. the real potential of this innovative tech- merger of DLT with an existing, trusted Here, in a way, a supplier is forced to dis- nology which eliminates delays, unex- network of banks – in this case Visa’s count his bills with a single bank. He pected fees and processing errors, paving 17,000 banking partners – to help banks might not be banking with the bank as a the way for real time cash management. improve international business-to-busi- supplier or getting better rates else- Panini Group Treasurer, Fabrizio ness payments for their corporate custom- where,” said Kannan. Masinelli said: “Blockchain technology ers. The two companies are currently applied to cross-border payments offers building Visa B2B Connect, a Visa-oper- an innovative way of processing in ated payments system that uses a permis- sioned, private blockchain architecture. The companies claim the system will ena- ble participating financial institutions to quickly process and settle international payments securely with near real-time verification of blockchain technologies. “We are developing our new solution to give our financial institution partners an efficient, transparent way for payments 32 // TREASURY PERSPECTIVES 2017/2018 www.eurofinance.com