India’s Axis Bank, JPMorgan unit for blockchain-based payments

Axis Bank, a leading private sector bank in India, has become the first financial institution in the country to offer near-instant, round-the-clock programmable USD clearing services for its business clients. This is possible through a partnership with JPMorgan’s (NASDAQ: JPM) Kinexys Digital Payments (KDP), a division of Kinexys, the financial services firm said in a statement.

Kinexys Digital Payments is supported by a scalable network of blockchain deposit accounts that facilitates and automates payments directly between accounts. Since its launch, the Kinexys platform has facilitated over $1.5 trillion in transaction volume. On average, daily transactions exceed $2 billion, with the platform experiencing a remarkable 10-fold growth in payment transactions year over year, the statement said.

Through its collaboration with KDP, Axis Bank can now provide its business clients the flexibility to access round-the-clock cross-border payment services. Additionally, integrating advanced blockchain technology into the bank’s infrastructure will improve the reliability of payment processing. This innovation paves the way for new and creative corporate applications, including programmable cash concentration across multiple banks, offering businesses greater control and efficiency in managing their finances.

“The innovation-first mindset from the Axis Bank’s leadership team was instrumental in launching the first-of-its-kind blockchain-based payments capability to its Indian consumer and corporate client base,” said Naveen Mallela, Global Co-Head of Kinexys by JPMorgan. “Our work with Axis Bank marks the next step in creating a growing industry-wide blockchain-based financial ecosystem with interoperability among central bank digital currencies, stablecoins and other digital currency solutions.”

KDP introduced blockchain-based deposit accounts in 2019, which are now widely adopted by several businesses and financial institutions globally. They enable seamless, on-demand, 24/7 multi-currency payments across borders.

According to a December 2024 GlobalData report, Axis Bank has committed significant resources to emerging technologies as part of its digital transformation strategy. The lender’s focus includes artificial intelligence (AI), big data, blockchain, cloud computing, and payment solutions. In 2024, the bank’s annual Information and Communications Technology (ICT) expenditure touched $290 million, with a substantial portion allocated for purchasing software, ICT services, and network and communications solutions from various vendors.

India’s Economic Survey 2024-2025 highlights the rapid advancements in technology, particularly in areas such as AI, blockchain, and data analytics, which create new opportunities to revolutionize traditional financial services and processes.

AI and large language models (LLMs) have enhanced customer service through interactive chatbots and personalized experiences, while blockchain technology ensures secure, transparent, and efficient transactions. At the same time, changing consumer expectations—driven by digital natives and the increasing demand for personalized, seamless, and convenient financial services—are prompting both established companies and new entrants to innovate in order to remain competitive.

“Over the last 15 months, we have essentially seen a massive wave towards consumerisation of AI. That is a big difference and a large language model is obviously a very different kind of an AI. Whatever we were using in the past, the opportunities have sort of simply exploded right now. At Axis, about a year back, we decided to set up a competency centre which is going to focus purely on Gen AI,” Avinash Raghavendra, President and Chief Information Officer (CIO) of Axis Bank, told Financial Express in March.

“Quantum is going to introduce far finer insights into transactions than what we have seen in the past. We already have some proofs of concept, which we believe is fairly exciting,” Raghavendra stated.

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