The Japan Bank Consortium will use a new smartphone application called MoneyTap to facilitate faster and instant transactions by its customers in Japan. The new application will be powered by the Ripple blockchain.
A New Ripple based solution for Domestic payments in Japan
The innovation will eliminate the current rigidity in domestic payments in the country. For instance, transactions must occur on weekdays and between 8:30 am and 3:30 pm or risk delays. The application will facilitate transactions 24 hours a day throughout the week.
“We are proud to leverage Ripple’s blockchain technology through our new mobile app, MoneyTap, to improve the payments infrastructure in Japan,” said Takashi Okita, CEO of SBI Ripple Asia.
He added that the consortium can together remove friction from payment in the country while creating a faster, safer, and more efficient domestic payments experience for customers. Customers will require only a bank account, phone number, or QR code to make transactions using the app.
It will have an effect by different banks in the country. This includes SBI Net Sumishin Bank, Suruga Bank and Resona Bank who will be the first to go live with the app in the autumn of 2018. The rest of the banks in the consortium will then roll out the application.
The consortium comprises of 61 banks led by SBI Ripple Asia and covers more than 80% of all banking assets in Japan. This means the mobile application will provide on-demand payments to the majority of people in the country, if successful.
There are discussions to change the current banking rail system in the country so that customers can transact 24 hours a day throughout the week. However, the cost of implementing the system will be very high.
MoneyTap will reduce the costs of transactions for customers.
Meanwhile, Ripple is gaining grounds in the cross-border payment scenes. It has more than 100 financial institutions on-board using xCurrent. The company also added pilots of xRapid that incorporates XRP into on-demand international payment flows.
The new smartphone application will advance that goal, including their goal of the Internet of Value where money moves freely and instantly over the web like information.
Emi Yoshikawa, director of joint venture partnerships at Ripple said,
“We’re proud to provide this production-ready technology that not only improves the international payments experience, but also have applications for domestic payments infrastructure.”
