SBI expands Ripple remittance tech to banks in Vietnam, Indonesia, Philippines

Japanese financial holding company SBI Group has announced that its international remittance services arm SBI Remit has partnered with Ripple and SBI Ripple Asia to offer an XRP (XRP) remittance service to bank accounts in several Southeast Asian countries. 

In an announcement, the company highlighted that SBI Remit has been using Ripple payments services for international remittances since 2017. Furthermore, SBI Remit also introduced solutions using crypto in 2021, claiming that it was the first in Japan to provide remittance services using XRP to crypto wallets in the Philippines.

— SBI VC Trade (SBI VCトレード） (@sbivc_official) September 6, 2023

With the new update, the payment technology service will be expanded to bank accounts in the Philippines, Vietnam and Indonesia. Through the program, SBI Remit will use XRP as a bridge currency to allow fast and cost-effective remittances.

According to the announcement, SBI expects adoption to accelerate as the volume of remittances to bank accounts in the countries mentioned above is high. Meanwhile, SBI also highlighted that it partnered with the cross-border payment solutions company Tranglo to make the expansion possible.

SBI did not mention an exact date of when the service will be available, but the company highlighted that it will be rolled out within this month.

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Ripple’s services continue to gain adoption in Japan despite its ongoing lawsuit in the United States. On April 17, Japanese banks Yamaguchi, Momiji and Kitakyushu started to support a RippleNet-based remittance service called MoneyTap P2P. The banks collectively have more than 170 local branches and are considered to be some of the major banking players in the country.

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