SBI launches e-Bank Guarantee facility in association with NeSL

By Leandra Monteiro

State Bank of India (SBI), the country’s largest lender, has launched e-Bank Guarantee (e-BG) facility in association with National e-Governance Services Limited (NeSL). This facility will bring about a revolutionary change in the banking ecosystem, where bank guarantee is frequently used in large volumes. Currently, the bank issues these guarantees with physical stamping and wet signatures. The introduction of e-BG will replace this function with e-stamping and e-signature.

Bank has taken this initiative to enhance transparency and reduce turnaround time from days to minutes. NeSL’s Digital Document Execution (DDE) platform, which provides e-Stamp and e-Sign functions, will facilitate the e-Bank Guarantee process. Beneficiaries will instantly receive an e-Bank Guarantee on NeSL’s platform without further verification.

On the occasion, Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chairman, SBI, said, “It gives us immense pleasure to join hands with NeSL to facilitate the e-BG service. SBI has always been the pioneer in providing state-of-the-art digital offerings to its customers to facilitate ease of banking services. Electronic Bank Guarantee (e-BG) is an important milestone in this journey that will reduce time in the Bank Guarantee life cycle. The initiative is in tandem with SBI’s commitment to promoting sustainable and user-friendly banking services.”

Debajyoti Ray Chaudhuri, MD & CEO of NeSL said, “It is indeed a proud moment for us that the country’s largest bank, SBI, is now live on NeSL’s e-BG platform. This collaboration is part of a larger initiative of SBI to digitize the last mile in the credit process using the Digital Document Execution (DDE) platform. We acknowledge the tireless efforts of the team at SBI working in tandem with us. NeSL’s e-BG removes all the pain points in the existing physical process of issuance of BGs and enhances the customer experience. eBG envisages that all the life cycle events in the BG, like issuance, amendment, invocation, etc. are fully digital, contactless, and paperless, which I believe is the way forward for all products in the banking industry.”