ICICI Bank On-Boards 70 Leading Corporates on ‘CorpConnect’

ICICI Bank 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 partners. ‘CorpConnect’, a first-of-its kind initiative, also offers instant and collateral-free digital channel financing solutions 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’-- represent 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 operational 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 facility 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.”

 The benefits offered by ‘CorpConnect’ for companies:

·         Digital ecosystem: Corporates can interact and transact digitally with their channel partners- suppliers and dealers—on a single platform

·         Digital process: End-to-end digital and paperless processes for banking and operations helps corporates with speed and higher productivity

·         Instant payments & collections: Corporates can undertake instant payments and collections to/from their channel partners. The integration with ERP ensures automation of transaction updates in ERP on real-time basis and automated reconciliation

·         Instant finance: Corporates can avail the facility of factoring, payable finance and early pay on the platform

·         Financial efficiencies: Reduced working capital and operational cost brings in significant operational and financial efficiencies

·         MIS dashboard: Customised MIS reports updated in ERP on real-time basis improves forecasting of corporates by combining operations and financial data

The benefits for suppliers and dealers:

·         Instant finance: Availability of instant and collateral free digital channel financing solutions like dealer finance for distributors and vendor finance/ reverse factoring for suppliers at competitive rates. Digital and quick processing in a hassle-free way; no  requirement of lengthy and tedious paperwork

·         Wide reach: The online finance facility is across the nation

·         Real time information: Availability of invoice-wise details to channel partners on a real-time basis with adjustment of debit/ credit notes and cash discount, if applicable

·         Multiple payment options: There are multiple payment options namely current account, channel finance OD account, Pay2Corp – virtual account set up, payment gateway and others

·         Customised MIS: Real-time access to customised MIS reports