Bank of Baroda, one of India’s leading public sector banks, has introduced Electronic Bank Guarantee (e-BG) on its BarodaINSTA platform, in partnership with National E-Governance Services Limited (NeSL), a platform that provides for the issuance of Inland BGs through electronic mode. By joining a select group of banks that offer electronic bank guarantees, Bank of Baroda has revolutionized the conventional paper-based process of issuing inland Bank Guarantees that typically takes a few days to execute, resulting in a substantial reduction in the turnaround time.
Through e-BGs, physical stamping has been replaced by e-stamping by NeSL, thus preventing fraud. The e-BGs are stored in a central repository, which ensures complete transparency and accessibility for all stakeholders, as well as easy authentication and verification. Furthermore, e-BGs are processed and delivered in a matter of minutes, as opposed to the average 2-3 days turnaround time for conventional BGs. This move brings greater security and accessibility to customers, and offers ease of verification for all parties involved.
T. N. Suresh, General Manager, Head – Forex & Fee Income, Bank of Baroda said, “Electronic Bank Guarantee is a transformational reform as we endeavour to make banking simpler, more secure and easily accessible for our customers. Individual contractors, SMEs and large corporates are major applicants for bank guarantees and the move to e-BGs – a quick, seamless, transparent and completely secure process – will benefit them all.”
Debajyoti Ray Chaudhuri, MD & CEO of NeSL said, “Over the past few years, India has built a robust digital infrastructure and this is driving growth across all sectors in the economy. The banking industry in general and BOB in particular has been at the forefront in making its products and processes available through the digital mode. NeSL’s e-BG meets a long-standing requirement of the banking industry for a digital product that addresses the challenges in the physical process of issuance of e-BGs. We are grateful to the Indian Banks’ Association for their support in conceptualising this product and coordinating the numerous consultations with their members till the time the product was ready for launch.”
NeSL provides a platform for electronic issuance of Inland BGs. The electronic process involves several steps such as filling out the BG application, reviewing and confirming it, using paperless e-stamping, digitally signing it, and finally hosting the completed electronic BG on the NeSL portal. Once the electronic BG is issued, the beneficiary is immediately notified and can view it on the NeSL portal without requiring additional authentication from the issuing bank. This eliminates the need for a separate authentication process.
