Japanese and Korean banks are to run pilot trials of real-time cross-border funds transfers over the Ripple network. The Japan Bank Consortium — a coalition of 61 banks in Japan, organised by SBI Ripple Asia — has announced the launch of a new Ripple pilot with Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank, two of South Korea’s largest banks.
It follows the formation in September of of a partnership agreement with Dayli Intelligence, a subsidiary of Dayli Financial Group, which has previously acted with South Korea’s first blockchain consortium as well as the Ministry of Science and ICT.
Under the terms of the trial, the Japan Bank Consortium will use Ripple’s settlement technology, xCurrent, to settle transactions between participating Japanese banks and Woori Bank or Shinhan Bank.
The pilot solidifies the Japan Bank Consortium’s commitment to modernise payment systems — specifically in the Japan/Korea corridor where Korea is Japan’s third largest trade partner.
“The Japan Bank Consortium’s pilot with Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank brings us closer to sending money in an important corridor,” says Emi Yoshikawa, director of partnerships at Ripple. “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.”
With interest in cryptocurrencies surging, the Japanese consortium has additionally created a virtual currency and blockchain working group to explore the institutional use case of alternative assets, such as Ripple’s own XRP, to source on-demand liquidity for these cross-border payments.