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Over the past year, SBI Ripple Asia has brought together 61 Japanese banks in its consortium, which represent 80% of Japan's total assets. In the coming months, the consortium could start using the Ripple network to process cross-border payments.
On September 26, SBI Ripple Asia successfully registered at the Kantou office of the Japanese Ministry of Finance as an agent for licensed electronic payments. The license allows the organization to operate as a transmitter of money, to process and liquidate transactions on behalf of individuals and companies.
Initially, the Asia organization will test its MoneyTap payment app, a blockchain-based money transfer service for retail users, but the license should lead to greater adoption of Ripple.
Increased demand in Japan
Last week, the price of XRP, Ripple's native cryptocurrency, increased nearly threefold. Around the same time, the volume of XRP-to-yen and XRP-to-crypto trading pairs rose to the Japanese cryptocurrency stock market, fueling the XRP rally.
Analysts have attributed the sharp rise in the price of XRP to the increase in demand for good from the Japanese cryptocurrency trading market, which remains the largest encryption market ahead of the United States and South Korea.
It is entirely possible that the growing anticipation of the integration of Ripple by the 61 banks involved in the consortium and two of South Korea's largest commercial banks, Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank, are contributing to the new momentum of XRP.
According to local regulations, companies wishing to work with banks and their APIs to process payments must be authorized as agents for electronic payments and register with local financial offices.
The recent move by SBI Ripple Asia frees the institution from retaining the integration of various blockchain-based products such as xRapid and xCurrent into the existing infrastructure of major banks.
Already in March of this year, Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank conducted a pilot test of Ripple settlement products to process cross-border payments between banks in the SBI Ripple Asia consortium.
In December 2017, the Ripple team wrote:
"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 project consolidates the commitment of Japan Bank Consortium in modernizing payment systems – in particular in the Japan / Korea corridor where Korea is Japan's third largest trading partner – to send money instantly, eliminating the need for intermediaries and reducing the costs of sending global payments ".
At the beginning of this year, Woori Bank hinted at the full integration of XRP by the end of 2018, if it is ready to be implemented on the services of the bank for international payments. The status of SBI Ripple as an authorized payment agent increases the likelihood that large commercial banks in Asia will work more actively with the organization to accelerate the integration of XRP.
Dozens of banks will use XRP
At the Money 20/20 conference, Ripple CEO Garlinghouse explained that dozens of major banks will use the Ripple network to process payments.
"I have publicly stated that by the end of this year I have full confidence that the major banks will use XRapid as a liquidity tool.You know, by the end of next year, I hope we will see you in the order of. .. dozens, "said Garlinghouse.
The Japanese and South Korean financial markets are the closest to the adoption of XRP and its liquidity products.
Shutterstock foreground image.
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