SBI launches e-BG facility: Stamping, wet signatures no more required – Follow these steps to get Electronic Bank Guarantee in minutes

SBI’s e-Bank Guarantee: India’s largest lender State Bank of India (SBI) today, January 12 has launched an e-Bank Guarantee (e-BG) facility in association with National e-Governance Services Limited (NeSL). Currently, the bank issues these guarantees with physical stamping and wet signatures, e-BG will help eliminate the physical documentation usually associated with e-stamping and e-signature.  

“Electronic Bank Guarantee (e-BG) is an important milestone in this journey that will reduce time in the Bank Guarantee life cycle. The initiative is in tandem with SBI’s commitment to promoting sustainable and user-friendly banking services,” Dinesh Kumar Khara, Chairman of SBI, said. 

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With this move, the bank will enhance transparency and reduce turnaround time from days to minutes. NeSL’s Digital Document Execution (DDE) platform, which provides e-Stamp and e-Sign functions, will facilitate the e-Bank Guarantee process. Beneficiaries will instantly receive an e-Bank Guarantee on NeSL’s platform without further verification.     

According to Debajyoti Ray Chaudhuri, MD & CEO of NeSL, e-BG removes all the pain points in the existing physical process of issuance of BGs.

“NeSL’s e-BG removes all the pain points in the existing physical process of issuance of BGs and enhances the customer experience. eBG envisages that all the life cycle events in the BG, like issuance, amendment, invocation, etc. are fully digital, contactless, and paperless, which I believe is the way forward for all products in the banking industry,” Debajyoti Ray said.  

What is an Electronic Bank Guarantee?

According to NeSL, an Electronic Bank Guarantee (e-BG) eliminates the physical documentation usually associated with issuance of BG. It reduces the turn-around time of the BG issuance and delivery to the beneficiary from an industry average of 3-4 working days to a few minutes. 

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The digital steps in an e-BG include BG application, preview and confirm, paperless e-stamping, e-signing, hosting of the final electronic BG on the NeSL portal and intimation of final BG to the beneficiary. 

The beneficiary can view the final digital BG on the NeSL portal immediately on issuance. Such an e-BG eliminates the need for a separate authentication from the BG issuing Bank.