Ripple has been working hard to push adoption all over the world and has collaborated with several banking and non-banking financial institutions. It aims to be the leader in the cryptocurrency-based global payments.
Asia has been one of the most important markets for Ripple, where it struck partnership deals with several banks in Singapore, Japan, and South Korea among other countries. However, it received a major blow when one of its three partner banks from Japan, Resona Bank, announced that it will be opting out the xCurrent powered Money Tap.
Money Tap is a global remittance application, based on Ripple’s xCurrent platform. The platform enables interbank transfers, and it allows users to transfer funds in real-time at no cost, using recipient’s telephone number or a built-in QR code. The application uses the smartphone’s biometric features, such as fingerprint scanning to ensure security.
Resona Bank, the fifth largest financial institutions in Japan, joined the platform immediately after it was launched in October 2018, however, it announced on Thursday that it will end its partnership on May 13. Along with Resona, other two banks that joined Money Tap in October last year are SBI Sumishin Net Bank and Suruga Bank. However, Resona will be the only one to part ways with Money Tap.
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Though reasons for the separation are still unknown, as the announcement only gave the date on which the bank would end the partnership, it is rumored to be because of the launch of the bank’s Resona Wallet App. Launched in February earlier this year, has similar functions like Money Tap. The Resona Wallet will also take the shape of a mobile application very soon, which a feature which is again quite similar to Ripple’s application.
The xCurrent based platform received investments from 13 banks in March, but none of them seem to be using the technology as of yet. Earlier this year, Money tap also got support from the country’s Banking Consortium and was considered a major contributor towards the improvement of the Asian country’s payments systems.
Global payments at large are growing rapidly, and blockchain based solutions seem to be the norm of this day and age. International remittances in 2018 were about 50% more than the preceding year. Blockchain technology has features like decentralization, immutability, and transparency, which make the tech most useful for money transfers globally.
Blockchain and crypto platforms like Ripple, SBI Holdings, Stellar, TRON, and SWIFT, are taking giant strides in the payments segment. In fact, the leader of traditional money transfers, VISA announced earlier in March, that it will be integrating blockchain technology with its global operations in order to facilitate payments through digital tokens.
JPMorgan, the world’s biggest private sector bank, launched its own stablecoin for facilitating international remittances, making it the first bank in the US to do so. Similarly, social media company Facebook is also working to launch its own stablecoin to enhance cross-border payments.
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At a time when global payments are rising, withdrawal of Resona may seem to be a big loss, but Ripple has enough of other options capable of nullifying the effect.
