AI & Robotics Ventures (ARV), a subsidiary of PTT Exploration and Production (PTTEP), has partnered with IT giant IBM to build a national digital corporate identity (NCID) system to facilitate corporate onboarding at banks.
The blockchain-based platform is scheduled to go live in a joint sandbox set up by the Electronic Transactions Development Agency (ETDA) and the Bank of Thailand early this year.
"This collaboration marks an important milestone where multiple parties, from government agencies and regulators to PTTEP and its banking partners, collaborate to uncover and tackle the bottleneck challenges of the corporate onboarding process with Web 3.0 technology," said Sinthu Satawiriya, head of ventures at ARV.
Web 3.0 features a new iteration of the internet based on the blockchain, which incorporates decentralisation and token-based economy.
"In collaboration with IBM, this secured platform will unlock new digital banking opportunities between corporates and banks," said Mr Sinthu.
The NCID platform, the first of its kind as a digital corporate identity system in Asean, incorporates ETDA's standards of self-sovereign identity on public blockchain and secure cryptographic key encryption.
The platform will help reduce the time it takes for corporate onboarding, also known as "know your customer" (KYC), at banks, he said.
By improving the identity verification of corporate authorised signatories, what used to be a paper-intensive process that could take more than four weeks to complete, is reduced to less than a week, Mr Sinthu said.
"NCID will significantly reduce the time taken and help tackle the bottleneck challenges of this paper-intensive corporate onboarding process, and enable a variety of new identity-reliant digital solutions," he said.
Referring to the business model of the NCID, Mr Sinthu said ARV plans to offer primarily three types of solutions to Thai corporates and banks: a pay-per-use usage model; a "software-as-a-service" model; and various partnership models with corporates and banks.
"For all these solutions, IBM will be one of ARV's preferred cloud service providers to support future scale and expansion," he said.
The platform will be first to be used by PTTEP and its banking partners for corporate KYC for treasury and bank accounts.
Sawat Asdaron, newly appointed managing director of IBM Thailand and managing partner for IBM Consulting, said this platform should bring transformational impact, leading to the standardisation of the corporate identity verification process for banks in Thailand.
Mr Sawat replaced Patama Chantaruck as managing director of IBM Thailand, who the company said will pursue opportunities outside of IBM.
A source familiar with IBM management who requested anonymity said top management at the firm do not have specific working terms.