Standard Chartered Launches e-Bank Guarantee with NeSL in India

Standard Chartered has announced its collaboration with the National e-Governance Services Ltd (NeSL) to launch an innovative electronic Bank Guarantee (eBG) capability in India. This capability aligns with the open Application Programming Interface (API) standards, developed by ICC and SWIFT and marks a significant milestone in the evolution of digital trade finance. The eBG enables Standard Chartered and its clients to digitally manage the entire life cycle of the guarantee and provides real-time visibility across the ecosystem for all counterparties to manage and monitor their guarantees.

Hitachi Systems India Pvt Ltd is the first client to mandate Standard Chartered for API initiation of eBG and onward transmission via NeSL platform. The mandate was signed on the sidelines of the Global Fintech Fest 2024, recently held in Mumbai.

As the first bank in India that combines API initiation on ICC standard framework, along with eBG issuance through NeSL, Standard Chartered aims to integrate API-driven solutions that enhance interoperability, operational efficiency, and real-time visibility in the banking sector. This transformative approach not only facilitates seamless integration of banking functions into corporate systems but also positions Standard Chartered and its partners, including Hitachi Systems India, as early adopters and drivers of the digitisation of trade finance.

Key benefits:

• API-Driven Integration: Standard Chartered’s eBG platform utilises open API standards to seamlessly integrate bank guarantees into corporate systems, ensuring faster and more secure transactions.
• Operational Efficiency: By leveraging industry standard APIs for initiation and electronic advising via NeSL eBG platform, paper handling is eliminated in the end to end  bank guarantee flow thereby, significantly accelerating the issuance and management of guarantees.
• Real-Time Visibility: Enhanced transparency and real-time updates are facilitated through API-driven solutions, improving the overall efficiency of trade finance transactions.
• Global Impact: By adopting these industry-leading API standards, Standard Chartered is not only advancing digital trade finance in India but also setting a precedent for global adoption and innovation.

“Standard Chartered continues to be at the forefront of the digitisation of trade finance,” said Michael Spiegel, Global Head, Transaction Banking at Standard Chartered. “We are pleased to partner with NeSL to introduce the eBG which is a significant step towards a more efficient and future-ready digital trade ecosystem both, in India and globally. This reflects our commitment to investing in our digital platforms and continuously enhancing our product capabilities to offer our clients with solutions that enable more efficient, transparent and secure digital business operations.”

Debajyoti Ray Chaudhuri, MD & CEO of NeSL said “NeSL’s eBG has been developed in association with Indian Banks’ Association (IBA) in response to the banks’ requirements for a digital product which could make the e-BG easily available to the beneficiary without the necessity of going through a tedious process of verifying the authenticity of the same. NeSL’s eBG is paperless and available in a digital form to the beneficiary of a e-BG on registration on the NeSL’s eBG portal. The process of user registration is simple and one time. For bulk users of e-BGs, NeSL also offers integration with the ERP systems through an API. I congratulate the team at Standard Chartered who worked tirelessly and in tandem with our team to roll out this product.”

“We have a long-standing relationship, spanning over a decade with Standard Chartered and use several of their banking solutions. We are very excited to partner with Standard Chartered on the API-led issuance and cancellation of bank guarantees and other trade products,” said Rajeev Garg, Director and Chief Financial Officer at Hitachi Systems India Pvt Ltd. “We are an innovation-driven organisation and look forward to more opportunities to work with Standard Chartered on digital initiatives which make our processes more efficient, simple and paperless.”