Global financial settlement solution provider Ripple has announced today the addition of 10 new customers to its growing global network. These financial institutions include MUFG, BBVA, SEB, Akbank, Axis Bank, YES BANK, SBI Remit, Cambridge Global Payments, Star One Credit Union and eZforex.com, representing a mixture of large multinational banks, innovative smaller banks and payment service providers. These customers have harnessed Ripple as the blockchain solution to solve the problems of speed, scalability and costs associated with the old way of conducting global payments.
Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple CEO, commented: “The world’s largest banks have been the first to adopt Ripple’s technology, and the network effect from our customer base is accelerating. People know Ripple is the only blockchain solution for payments that is proven in the real world, and it’s driving demand from financial institutions of all kinds and sizes because they want to stay ahead of the curve.”
The new group of customers showcases how Ripple can reduce the time and cost associated with global transactions for a breadth of financial institutions. One example of this is BBVA, one of the 50 largest banks in the world, which is using Ripple to enable real-time payments between Europe and Mexico. Another example is the digital banking pioneer and one of Turkey’s largest private banks, Akbank, which has adopted blockchain to make faster cross-border payments without the need for correspondents. Star One is the first credit union to offer Ripple remittances to customers via eZforex.com, demonstrating how smaller banks can lower costs and achieve much greater reach for their customers, whereas Cambridge Global Payments and Earthport are collaborating with Ripple to improve the customer experience, increase the reach and reduce the cost of real-time cross-border payments.
Hirofumi Aihara, General Manager of the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi UFJ - a member of MUFG, said: “We are very pleased to be working with Ripple to provide new types of payments services to change our customers’ experience using the power of the blockchain technology. To demonstrate our commitment to the technology, we are joining the Japan Bank Consortium to collaborate with other Japanese banks move to commercial use of Ripple’s global network. I do believe we can bring our experience from the Japan Bank Consortium to the Global Payments Steering Group.”
Tolga Ulutaş, Executive Vice President in charge of Akbank Direct Banking, stated: “We are excited and happy to be the first bank in Turkey to take the important step of using blockchain technology for international money transfer services. We believe that this new phase in technology will increase speed and transparency for our customers while at the same time reducing costs and providing a higher quality of service.”
Amresh Acharya, Group President and Head of Global Indian Banking at YES BANK, remarked: “India is the largest recipient of personal remittances in the world, and as a leading Indian bank with a strong focus on technology, we are glad to partner with Ripple to realize the enhanced efficiencies of blockchain for real time cross-border payments. This partnership is a continuation of YES BANK’s ethos of using state-of-the-art technology innovation to offer a superior banking experience to our customers.”
V Srinivasan, Deputy Managing Director of Axis Bank, commented: “We are committed to using innovation in technology to make banking simple and convenient for our customers. Remittances have been a key strategic area for us. We at Axis are excited with the tie-up and the potential that the use of blockchain technology could deliver in enabling real-time, affordable money transfers. We have commenced work with Ripple and are in active discussions with other banks on the network to collaborate and test various use cases across retail and corporate remittances.”
Paula da Silva, Head of Transaction Services at SEB, explained: “We are implementing cross-border payments in real time over Ripple. For us this is a first step in exploiting the advantages of using blockchain and distributed ledger technology in the payment area. We appreciate our partnership with Ripple.”
