Ripple blockchain powers payments for Japanese bank consortium
SBI Ripple Asia has announced that a Japanese consortium of 15 banks in a new network will use Ripple’s blockchain technology for payments and settlement.
Using Ripple, customers of the banks will get real-time domestic and cross-border payments, 365 days of the year. Initial participants include Bank of Yokohama and SBI Sumishin Net Bank (SBI Holdings owns part of it).
SBI Ripple Asia says cross-border fees can run up to thousands of yen (or tens of dollars). In the new setup, it says banks will pay about 90% less in fees.
SBI Ripple Asia is a joint venture formed in January this year between distributed ledger tech provider Ripple and Japanese financial services firm SBI Holdings.
In July, Mizuho Financial Group (MHFG), one of the largest financial groups in Asia, became one of the first Japanese banks to pilot blockchain for cross-currency settlement using Ripple.
SBI Ripple Asia projects that the 15 inaugural members will increase the size of the consortium to 30 banks, and that the new service will go live in spring of 2017.
Snapshot
Ripple has enjoyed an eventful year. In the last few months alone it has made headway with its blockchain offering.
Canada’s ATB Financial sent €666.67 to ReiseBank in Germany using Ripple technology, with the transaction completing in eight seconds. The participants say this was the world’s first bank transfer using blockchain.
A host of major banks adopted Ripple to improve their cross-border payments, the vendor said, and many completed trial blockchain projects. The latest banks to join Ripple’s network were Santander, UniCredit, UBS, CIBC and National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD).
