Syndicate Bank To Use Blockchain For ATM Reconciliation To Shorten Reconciliation Process

Banks in India, whether public or private are actively implementing the blockchain technology in its process to improve the customer experience and further simplify it. Till now, you have only heard about leading private and public banks of India investing and developing use cases for implementing the blockchain technology.Now, a much smaller and lesser-known Indian public sector bank, Syndicate Bank will be creating private blockchain for ATM reconciliation. Syndicate Bank will now keep ATM machines on the block to alert customers in nano-seconds. Explaining the use of blockchain for ATM reconciliation, Managing Director Mrutyunjay Mahapatra, said:“Say you are a Syndicate Bank customer taking money out of say a Syndicate Bank or ICICI Bank ATM. If say you tried to withdraw Rs 10,000 and you get a message saying your account has been debited, but cash has not been dispensed – what do you do?”The normal procedure is to call the customer’s bank, report the incident. And then wait for 4-5 working days, as the bank checks its systems to verify if the transaction has occurred or not and then reverse the amount. Meanwhile, it’s five days of tension for you. But in a blockchain model that need not be the case.When the ATM becomes a block in a series of transactions, the system would immediately check the opening balance for the day, run through all the transactions that took place since then, and if there is more money in the ATM than what the digital transactions noted, that means it’s obvious your money has not been dispensed. “So our system will immediately alert you – ‘Your attempt to withdraw Rs 10,000 has failed as cash was not dispensed. The amount will be reversed back to the account within 2 working days.”Syndicate Bank believes that it will help them to reduce the reconciliation time from current five days to two working days. Banks in India are increasing their investments in the blockchain technology and is also leading the hiring spree for professionals with blockchain experience.Join the Discussion on Telegram