ANZ, Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA), Westpac, IBM and shopping firm Scentre Group have revealed that their blockchain platform Lygon can now offer speedy bank guarantees.
Following last year’s pilot, and turning the “paper-based, slow and costly” process into digital form, the five firms say today (1 September) Lygon can reduce the time to issue a bank guarantee from one month to one day.
Lygon Chairman Nigel Dobson comments: “The commercialisation of the Lygon platform represents a significant milestone for blockchain technology in Australia and globally. We’ve gone from a proof of concept to a newly incorporated company and commercially available platform in two years – at a time when the demand for digital has never been stronger.”
He points out that Lygon – which runs on IBM Public Cloud – has digitised the paperwork, the process and the legality behind the guarantee.
According to Lygon, these financial guarantees are often required as part of a retail property lease and from September, early adopters will be able to join and use the platform.
The pilot in July 2019 was among a test group of more than 20 Australian businesses. Lygon onboarded new applicants to the platform “in less than 15 minutes” and supported a number of other common bank guarantee processes including amendments and cancellations.
The next stage is to unveil a wider range of digitised bank guarantees it provides to customers and look at expansion into New Zealand and other international markets. There are no details or timelines about these ambitions – although Lygon does mention cross-border guarantees that are “more commonly used for trade”.
Lygon is operated by Lygon 1B Pty Ltd, a standalone company jointly owned by the five founding members. The platform will be open to the general public, along with new features, in early 2021.
In other news today, ANZ has completed the sale of its asset finance business in New Zealand, UDC Finance, to Shinsei Bank. The sale was originally announced in June 2020.