Long-time Ripple partner, SBI Holdings, recently announced that they would be using Ripple’s XRP to facilitate remittances from Japan to Southeast Asia. SBI Holdings is a banking giant that is involved in cryptocurrency.
With the current development, SBI Holdings have expanded its cryptocurrency services. SBI Remit, SBI’s remittance platform will be using xRapid. xRapid is a Ripple XRP-powered technology and is also known as On-Demand Liquidity (ODL).
Through On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), companies can now free up capital that they use as pre-funding for accounts in destination currencies. Through ODL, any member financial institution can enjoy a reliable, instant, and low-cost transaction.
SBI Remit is using MoneyGram’s payment networks. MoneyGram partnered with Ripple June this year. They are also using Ripple’s ODL to transfer dollars to Mexico with XRP as the bridge currency. SBI Ripple Asia is also making use of Ripple’s global payment networks.
In the past month, SBI also launched MoneyTap. It is an app that allows users to send funds with the use of phone numbers and QR Codes. It uses Ripple’s technology and is available on iOS and Android platforms.
Aside from the app, SBI Holdings also recently launched VCTRADE, it’s bank-owned crypto exchange.
In order to further expand its network, SBI is working on getting more Japanese banks. Currently, MoneyTap only works with SBI Sumishin Net Bank and Suruga bank; both are local financial institutions.
SBI is known to be one of the largest banks in cryptocurrency. It has partnered with Ripple in several projects and is continually exploring more possibilities.
