Thrissuri: South Indian Bank has introduced an e-BG (Electronic Bank Guarantee) facility for its customers in partnership with National E-Governance Service Limited (NeSL). It facilitates API-based paperless issues of bank guarantees, eliminating the need for physical documentation and record maintenance. The bank issued its First e-BG favouring a leading Public Sector Unit on 29th April, 2023 for an amount of Rs.4.57 crore through NeSL. This is a noteworthy achievement that places the Bank in a select group of banks that have issued eBGs.
South Indian Bank’s customers can avail of the facility and procure e-BGs intended for beneficiaries on boarded on NeSL. The facility replaces the existing manual and paper-based model of issuing Bank Guarantees. Paper-based BGs involve manual intervention for stamping, signing and transferring the physical BGs while e-BGs are stamped electronically, eliminating the need for purchasing of physical stamp paper, printing the documents and physical signatures.
Speaking on the launch Mr. Murali Ramakrishnan, MD & CEO, South Indian Bank, said, “Digitisation is the core enabler for our vision, and it gives us immense pleasure to launch this in association with NeSL on our 94th year of operation. The issuance of e-BG shall reduce turnaround time and contribute towards the ease of doing business for our business customers. There are several benefits for our customers, including faster processing time, convenience, cost-effectiveness, increased security, and improved tracking.”
Mr Debajyoti Ray Chaudhuri, MD & CEO of NeSL said, “NeSL’s eBG has been developed in association with the Indian Banks’ Association in response to the banks’ requirements for a digital product which could make the BG easily available to the beneficiary without the necessity of going through a tedious process of verifying the authenticity of the same. NeSL’s e-BG is paperless and available in a digital form to the beneficiary of an e-BG on registration on the NeSL’s e-BG portal. The process of user registration is simple and one time. NeSL’s eBG takes care of all the life cycle events of the BG in a seamless and digital manner. I congratulate the team at South Indian Bank who worked tirelessly and in tandem with our team to roll out this product.”
The e-BG facility has numerous advantages over the prevailing system of paper BGs
· Considerable reduction in TAT (turnaround time)
· Beneficiary can directly access the BG from the NeSL Portal
· Eliminates the need for physical movement of the BG contract documents
· Generation of contract document in a dematerialised and paperless form
· No physical stamp paper required
· Notification to beneficiary and applicant from NeSL
· Applicant need not present the BG in physical form to the beneficiary
· Eliminates the pitfalls of paper-based process
