News: During the Global Fintech Fest 2025, the National e-Governance Division and National E-Governance Services Limited signed a MoU to link Entity Locker with the Digital Document Execution platform for electronic bank guarantees (e-BGs).
About Electronic Bank Guarantees (e-BGs)
- Paper BG: The Paper BG in India are issued as paper documents by banks, on request from customers (Applicant) and in favour of beneficiaries.
- The paper BG is stamped as per stamp duty requirement, signed by bank official(s) and then delivered to beneficiary through the customer or collected by beneficiary from the bank’s branch.
- e-BG: An 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.
- It is a fully digital bank guarantee issued with National E-Governance Services Limited (NeSL), using e-stamping and e-signing, and delivered instantly to the beneficiary.
- Minister involved: Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) and the Ministry of Finance.
- Working mechanism
- NeGD’s cloud-based Entity Locker (an extension of DigiLocker) integrates with NeSL’s Digital Document Execution (DDE) platform.
- Banks issue, renew, amend, or invoke e-BGs end-to-end digitally with e-stamp and e-sign.
- The e-BG PDF, digitally signed by a bank official, is stored in NeSL’s e-BG repository.
- Beneficiary and applicant securely access, view, and download the e-BG directly via Entity Locker/NeSL, receiving notifications on issuance or any status change.
- Aim : To enhance efficiency, reduce paperwork, and improve security in bank guarantees through instant, paperless, and legally enforceable digital workflows.
- Key features
- The e-BG is completely digital, with e-stamping and a digitally signed BG PDF, and it supports issuance, amendment, invocation, and closure through an end-to-end online process.
- It allows flexible documentation, so beneficiaries and applicants can continue using their existing BG templates without shifting to a standardized format.
- It is tamper-proof because the BG is digitally signed by a bank official under the Information Technology Act, and any alteration would invalidate the signature.
- NeSL acts as the central repository, storing every e-BG and recording subsequent events such as amendments, invocation, and closure after confirmation from the issuing bank.
- The platform offers 24×7 availability with direct notifications from NeSL, enabling easy search, verification, viewing, and downloading for all concerned parties.
- Stamp duty enforcement is streamlined through online payment and the issuance of a digital stamp certificate.
