Private sector bank Axis becomes the first Indian financial institution to offer near-real-time, 24/7 programmable USD clearing for its commercial clients with JP Morgan’s digital assets unit Kinexys.
Kinexys Digital Payments (KDP) will power this development, leveraging their blockchain deposit accounts launched in 2019. These accounts are now used by an increasing number of organisations around the world to drive 24/7 multi-currency payment movements across borders.
Over $1.5 trillion in transaction volume has been processed on the Kinexys platform according to a statement sent to Finextra by JP Morgan. Further, the average daily transaction volume across the Kinexys platform is over $2 billion, and has seen 10x year-over-year growth in payments transactions.
With KDP, Axis can offer its commercial clients the option of making cross border payments at any time. The platform being built with blockchain technology ensures payments are processed efficiently , opening up new possibilities for businesses, such as managing cash across multiple banks in an automated way.
This is also the first time that an Indian company will be able to receive dollar payments at any time. The capability is expected to be delivered out of international financial services centre, Gujarat International Finance Tec-City (GIFT City).
Neeraj Gambhir, group executive and head - treasury, markets and wholesale banking products, Axis Bank, says: “With this collaboration, we are bringing significant value to our clients through streamlining payments, unlocking liquidity and above all, adding further optionality on cross-border payments, utilising blockchain-based payment rails that are fit for growth. This capability, amongst others launched this year, positions Axis Bank’s international banking unit well to be our clients’ transaction bank of choice from GIFT City.”
Naveen Mallela, global co-head of Kinexys by JP Morgan, adds: “The innovation-first mindset from the Axis Bank’s leadership team was instrumental in launching the first-of-its-kind blockchain-based payments capability to its Indian consumer and corporate client base. Our work with Axis Bank marks the next step in creating a growing industry-wide blockchain-based financial ecosystem with interoperability among central bank digital currencies, stablecoins and other digital currency solutions.”