Why Banks Need Blockchain To Get Their Records In Order
During financial disputes, it’s crucial for financial institutions to get the right sequence of events. While they do have all the records, they are saved across different systems. A new tech promises to bring them all onto one platform without upsetting their existing infrastructure.
The Gist
Revolutionising Financial Transactions with Blockchain
Invincible Ocean's new platform addresses the common issue of fragmented transaction records among financial institutions.
- Unlike traditional systems that often require manual log retrieval, this platform records every update in a secure, sequential manner.
- The technology aims to streamline operations by providing a unified view of transaction histories.
- This innovation seeks to minimise disputes and enhance collaboration among banks and financial entities.
Last week, Invincible Ocean, an Indian technology company that specialises in AI and blockchain infrastructure, launched a hybrid blockchain platform for banks, financial institutions, and government workflows.
The platform’s job is to record actions such as transactions, approvals, changes, and confirmations in the right sequence in a form that cannot be manipulated later without anyone noticing.
At first glance, it looks like a feature every core banking system in would already have. And the fact is that they do, but they don’t always record the activities in a single agreed sequence across systems.
Transactions are typically handled by one application, approval logs by another, and user activity is captured by a third app.
The difficulty starts during disputes when questions arise about what happened first and what followed. In short, the exact sequence.
At that time, various teams have to coordinate to pull out logs and match timestamps before they can say with confidence how the event actually unfolded.
The Right Sequence
There is another layer to the problem.
In current databases, the latest value replaces a previous entry. The earlier values still exist, but only inside system logs that someone has to retrieve separately.
For example, if a third-party transfer limit is changed more than once, each change appears in order. But the main screen only shows the current limit, and the past revisions need to be pulled from backend files.
However, with Invincible Ocean’s platform, which keeps a tamper-evident ledger, every modification and update by the user or the institution is recorded in the right sequence.
So when a case is reviewed, it reduces the need to search different systems and piece together what happened first and what followed. The staff can see the steps already arranged in order.
This becomes convenient especially when an account has moved through several teams.
A Common Network
A similar idea already exists abroad in the Contour trade-finance network.
Large banks such as HSBC, Standard Chartered, BNP Paribas, Citi, DBS and ING use it when they handle letters of credit.
Instead of each bank keeping its own file and sending details of confirmations or transactions back and forth, everyone works on a common network.
When a document is accepted or changed, all parties see the same step in the same order, reducing the need for repeated follow-ups.
India has something close to this through the Indian Banks’ Blockchain Infrastructure Company (IBBIC), created by banks including SBI, ICICI Bank, HDFC Bank and Axis Bank.
It lets banks view the same trade-finance record instead of matching separate documents.
The difference is in how they are used.
Contour and IBBIC are networks that banks must join together. Invincible Ocean, on the other hand, is offering a tool a bank can install on its own systems without upsetting the existing infrastructure.
Final Words
In many financial transactions, each organisation keeps its own record even when they involve multiple institutions.
When there is a dispute that involves various institutions, settlement may wait until all sides agree on what happened.
A shared verifiable record like the one Invincible Ocean has introduced helps them confirm an event in the correct sequence without exchanging internal data.
