In yet another nibble at the traditional banking infrastructure two Asian giants are about to work together leveraging technology to offer a more efficient and expeditious service.
India's largest private sector bank, ICICI Bank has announced its association with Chinese e-commerce behemoth Alibaba.com for the launch of a trade facilitation centre. The collaboration will establish a single window facility to provide easier trade finance to the small and medium enterprises in India.
The alliance for the centre will enable the Indian entrepreneurs, who are members of Alibaba.com, to get quick access to an array of integrated business services from ICICI Bank including business loans, cash management solutions, foreign exchange (forex) transactions, bank guarantees and cross-border remittances, in addition to privileges and discounts.
Rajiv Sabharwal, executive director, ICICI Bank said, "This collaboration underlines our commitment to providing users with banking solutions that simplify their lives.”
