SBI expands XRP remittances to Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines
Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Group has inked a partnership between its international remittance services arm, SBI Remit, and Ripple, alongside SBI Ripple Asia, to provide an XRP-based remittance service to bank accounts in multiple Southeast Asian countries.
Although an exact launch date was not specified, SBI stated that the service would be rolled out within the current month.
SBI Remit has been employing Ripple’s payment services for international remittances since 2017, having introduced its crypto-based solutions in 2021. It claimed to be the first in Japan to offer remittance services using XRP to crypto wallets in the Philippines.
The new partnership with Ripple sees the company offering instant and cost-effective retail remittances via ODL, supported by Tranglo, the cross-border payment hub based in Singapore.
With this latest development, SBI Remit is expanding its payment technology service to include bank accounts in the Philippines, Vietnam, and Indonesia. This expansion aims to leverage XRP as a bridge currency to enable fast and cost-effective remittances.
SBI anticipates a rapid adoption of this service, given the high volume of remittances to bank accounts in the Southeast Asian countries. The company also noted its collaboration with cross-border payment solutions provider Tranglo as instrumental in facilitating this expansion.
While Ripple faces an ongoing legal battle in the United States, its services are gaining traction in Japan. In April, three Japanese banks onboarded Ripple-based payment system MoneyTap to tap its increasingly popular blockchain solution for cross-border payments and peer-to-peer remittance.
SBI Remit, Japan’s largest remittance service, has added support for MoneyTap transaction at three local banks: Yamaguchi Bank, Momiji Bank, and Kitakyushu Bank. MoneyTap is a blockchain-based payment platform that allows for instant, low-cost cross-border payments.
Customers can use their mobile phone numbers to make online remittance transactions, in addition to their bank account numbers. The MoneyTap software also includes online identity verification and biometric authentication features, which ensures high levels of security for clients of these three banks.
The integration aims to leverage blockchain technology to reduce friction, improve efficiency and interoperability for cross-border payments and utilizes MoneyTap’s ability to provide real-time settlement.
Ripple’s MoneyTap has been gaining momentum in the world of banking, with an increasing number of financial institutions embracing the technology.
