No Proposal For Common Blockchain Platform For Banks, Says Finance Ministry

The finance ministry clarified on Monday that there were no proposals for setting up guidelines or prescribing a model common blockchain technology platform for banks.

Minister of State for Finance Bhagwat Karad said this in response to a question posed during the winter session of parliament, retaining the government's position on the matter last year.

Parliamentarian Ramya Haridas posed the question over concerns about the interoperability of blockchain-based applications between different banks.

Based on data from the Indian Banks' Association, only a few banks are using blockchain technology and at a small scale, therefore, there are no major concerns over interoperability, the ministry noted in its response.

Indian Banks' Digital Infrastructure Company, which is a consortium of 18 public and private bankers, is working on scoping the implementation of domestic letter of credit issuance on blockchain as one of its use cases, Karad said.

The Reserve Bank of India's innovation hub, too, conducted a successful proof-of-concept exercise for an interoperable Distributed Ledger Technology platform in June 2022 with banks, DLT fabric partners, DLT application layer partners, and fintech startups.