BBVA and Ripple complete blockchain cross-border money transfer pilot
BBVA and Ripple in blockchain cross-border payments trial
BBVA has announced the completion of “the first real-life implementation of an international money transfer using Ripple’s new distributed ledger technology (DLT)”.
The transaction, which ran on BBVA infrastructures with real money, resulted in money moved between Spain and Mexico “in a matter of seconds”.
“Currently, transfers between countries take up to four days to clear,” BBVA explains. “The use of disruptive technologies such as DLT could bring significant progress to improving the customer experience in transactions involving Latin America corridors.”
BBVA also cites other benefits of blockchain tech, such as providing customers with “much clearer information about the costs associated with the process” and the ability to view payments’ status at all times.
In addition, “by using integrated messaging and settlement, the parties involved in the transaction have access to all the payment-related information”, BBVA states.
The banking group adds it is currently involved in a number of blockchain pilots, among them a project in the syndicated loans space by the R3 consortium.
BBVA is a member of R3. It has also recently joined the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance and Hyperledger.
Making Ripples
The Bank of England’s (BoE) fintech accelerator has recently teamed with Ripple for a cross-border payments proof of concept (PoC).
In the Middle East, National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) has become the first bank in the region to introduce real-time cross-border payments on Ripple’s blockchain network.
Meanwhile, Axis Bank has become the first bank in India to use Ripple’s blockchain network for cross-border payments.
Scandinavian banking group SEB has teamed up with Ripple to enable its customers to make real-time transfers between SEB accounts in Stockholm and New York. The bank describes it as “an internal, closed blockchain”.
Last year, Canada’s ATB Financial sent €666.67 to ReiseBank in Germany using Ripple technology, with the transaction completing in eight seconds. The participants said this was the world’s first bank transfer using blockchain.
