Infosys is setting up its trade finance network in a banking sector rattled by an over $2 billion fraud at India’s second-biggest state-run lender, Punjab National Bank (PNB) (PNBK.NS), allegedly by two jeweler groups with help from rogue bank staff.

The jewelers have been accused of raising credit from Indian banks’ overseas branches using fake trade finance guarantees provided by PNB staff in Mumbai who did not enter those guarantees in the bank’s computer system.

Infosys’ network will make transactions transparent for “the buyers, the sellers, the buyer’s bank, the seller’s bank and any regulator who is on this network,” Rajashekara Maiya, Finacle global head of product strategy, said in a telephone interview.

“With that kind of a capability, the technology can avoid all the fraud that could have taken place in a situation like Punjab National Bank,” he said.

In March, India’s central bank barred all lenders from issuing letters of undertaking – a form of credit guarantee at the heart of the PNB fraud.

Banks can continue issuing letters of credit and bank guarantees. The instruments are among the various forms of trade finance that importers use to fund overseas purchases.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.reuters.com