Korean banks in Japanese payments tie-up
Written by Chris Lemmon
21/12/2017
The Japan Bank Consortium – a coalition of 61 banks in Japan, organised by SBI Ripple Asia – has announced a new Ripple pilot with South Korea’s Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank.
The initiative will be the first time money has moved from Japan to Korea over RippleNet. The consortium will use Ripple’s settlement technology xCurrent to settle transactions between participating banks.
The Japanese consortium has also created a virtual currency and blockchain working group to explore the institutional use case of digital currencies to source on-demand liquidity for such cross-border payments.
Partnering with the Korean banks forms part of the consortiums commitment to modernise global payment systems – specifically in the Japan/Korea corridor – to send money instantly, removing the need for intermediaries.
Emi Yoshikawa, director of partnerships at Ripple, commented: “The Japan Bank Consortium’s pilot with Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank brings us closer to sending money in an important corridor. The use of RippleNet to send cross-border payments reinforces that financial institutions are ready to provide a modern payments experience and enable to the Internet of Value.”
