Every year, both Japan and Vietnam experience a significant amount of remittance flow. Using blockchain technology, both SBI Ripple Asia and SBI Fintech’s subsidiary, SBI Remit, began a partnership to initiate money transfer services between two countries.
The Japanese companies partnered with local Vietnamese bank Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank to make the transfers in fiat currency.
SBI Remit uses MoneyGram to transfer funds within its network of partnered banks. To transact with its Vietnamese counterpart, the company will use RippleNet Vietnam. To make this happen, and to also tap into the existing cross-border payments market, Ripple allegedly invested $30 million in MoneyGram.
Yoshitaka Kitao, a representative of the SBI Group, left a comment regarding this development. He regarded the booming Vietnamese economy as one of the most attractive markets in the world to invest in. He shared that currently, they own 19.9 percent of shares from a bank the SBI Group invested in 2009. This bank, which they named TPBank, has also actively utilized cutting-edge technology to achieve steady accumulation of loans and non-interest income like settlement services to reach where they are now.
The SBI Group firmly believes RippleNet will help differentiate them from their competitors. Additionally, they want to develop remittance services that are fit to manage crypto-assets in the future.
A Major Remittance Market
Japan is home to a sizable number of Vietnamese people. It has only gone up over the past years, reaching above 330,000 by the end of 2018. Ripple continuously expands in the global market. It has even partnered with Finastra in the UK to help its clients use cross-border payment services.
Nguyen Hung, CEO of Tien Phong Bank, says that their partnership with SBI Ripple Asia Co., Ltd regarding blockchain technology in cross-border money transfers marked a turning point in how they improved the customer experience. Furthermore, this cooperation between banks makes international money transfers via TPBank faster, safer, and ultimately more convenient for their customers.
With this development, transactions from foreign banks to Vietnam can be carried out faster and safer.
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