Infosys Explores Blockchain Technology

Exploring the potential of blockchain technology is just one of the moves the Infosys banking unit is making, to turn around years of shrinking profits. In 2012, Finacle was estimated to be worth $314 million USD, today the 6,000 person company has an estimated value of $300 million. According to business advisory firm NelsonHall, this is the result of a failure to penetrate the lucrative US market, and falling behind technological advancements in the industry.

Finacle has been in the midst of change and reform since appointing a new CEO, Vishal Sikka, in late 2014. As well as exploring new technologies, and business strategies, the company has been acquiring a range of new talented employees. The new hires Include people from rival banking software firms, with offices in Silicon Valley – Systems, Applications & Products (SAP) Labs and Sopra Banking Software.

A Finacle executive familiar with the situation was quoted by Livemint.com as saying, “I don’t think we can say [Finacle] is being structurally reworked. It is a leading product recognized globally, but surely there are areas that need re-engineering. How do we make it more compatible in the age of mobile banking, and what other applications [do] we need to build, develop on Blockchain so that we can offer benefits to our clients,”

“The thing with this (Blockchain) is that we still do not know the full technology impact it can have. More than just knowing the payments, we can get insights in legal documents, or use for even credit-worthiness of parties. All this obviously makes your (core banking) product stand out,”
— – Finacle executive

According to the same company executive, Finacle’s global head of banking software development,  Michael Reh, has been put in charge of exploring blockchain technology. Reh has been somewhat vocal about his interest in the crypto-currency on social media.

Executive Vice President and the Chief Delivery Officer of Infosys, Ravi Kumar S. was similarly vocal on an Infosys blog last year stating, “Security is rightfully a concern and breaches don’t come cheap, so it’s all the more reason for retailers to adopt radical innovations in security such as ‘blockchain cryptography’.”

“There are billions of people, across the globe, who are either unbanked or under-banked and need efficient payment options. That’s a sign that there’s a lot that can happen in the payments space.”
— – Kumar S.

Banks in the United States, Europe and Asia, have recently been showing more and more interest in blockchain technology. Just last last week Bravenewcoin reported on a blockchain hackathon being conducted by The Development Bank of Singapore (DBS bank), the largest bank in Singapore by asset value. French telecom giant and mobile money provider, Orange, recently announced they are looking for bitcoin startups to invest in.

Leveraging the Blockchain could help Finacle enter the US market and others, as Vice President of Banking Applications and Architecture at Forrester Research, Jost Hoppermann alluded to, “Will they be open to embracing Bitcoin and Blockchain? Vendors with more advanced architectures will certainly find it easier to offer this kind of support.”

“As soon as the client base of global banking platform vendors (mainly banks) consider Bitcoin and Blockchain as mainstream, it will be the time when banking platform vendors should incorporate Bitcoin/Blockchain capabilities into their solutions.”
— – Hoppermann