Indian Banks Select Microsoft As Exclusive Cloud Blockchain Provider

A consortium of India-based banking firms including State Bank of India, ICICI Bank and DCB Bank has formally selected Microsoft Azure as their exclusive cloud partner.

As a part of this partnership, the 20 members of the BankChain consortium, which went public with its R&D efforts last month, will use Microsoft's Azure blockchain to host the nodes that will relay transactions on their distributed ledger systems.

According to a news release, the first active project to use Azure will be Primechain-KYC, a closed, permissioned blockchain built by Mumbai-based Primechain Technologies. The tool seeks to help clients share know-your-customer (KYC), anti-money laundering and counter-terrorist financing information.

Since adding blockchain to its Azure cloud computing platform in October 2015, Microsoft has added a steady stream of partners, including JP Morgan, Emercoin, and Bitshares, to its blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) solution – a product styled as a kind of 'sandbox' where partners can interact with different technologies in a low-risk environment.

As such, the partnership affirms how bringing blockchain to banking, financial services and the insurance industry has been a focus for Microsoft.

Taj Mahal image via Shutterstock