Technology innovations such as Blockchain can open doors to new ways of working and new opportunities for creating value, while also potentially improving the financial inclusion challenge in PNG.
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT), more commonly known as Blockchain, is a digital ledger that is distributed or held by many and used for recording information in a transparent manner.
Speaking at the recent Bank of PNG’s Blockchain Summit, ANZ’s Head of Trade and Supply Chain, Michael Lim said the technology has many benefits including reducing paper-based transactions and fraud; promoting transparency, as well as driving standardisation and increasing efficiency and accuracy.
In PNG, the cost of fraud, manual errors and operational risks in businesses and financial institutions can be significant given it is still predominately a paper-based economy where cheques and cash transactions are the common means of settlement.
“These costs and risks can potentially be reduced for our customers through the use of Distributed Ledger technology, enhancing the safety and efficiency of international trade and speed of payment,” Lim said.
At the Summit, Lim also shared ANZ’s recent experience and the resulting lessons learnt using Distributed Ledger technology in Australia.
In July this year, ANZ with Westpac, IBM and shopping centre operator Scentre Group in Australia completed a Proof of Concept which successful digitised the bank guarantee process used for commercial property leasing using Distributed Ledger Technology.
The subsequent whitepaper outlined the “immense promise” of Distributed Ledger Technology to better facilitate the necessary flow of information between different stakeholders and eliminate the existing paper based process.
“There is the opportunity for this technology to be used across other industries in PNG. It holds tremendous possibilities to transform the economy. The benefits can only be realised through broad industry adoption and close collaboration between customers, competitors, regulators and technology companies for it to succeed,” Lim added.