One of the biggest Spanish banks partnered with one of the most important cryptocurrencies on the market.
Santander and Ripple will launch an international money transfer app that will be powered by Ripple according to BusinessInsider.
The precise launch date hasn’t been announced yet, but the bank is currently working on developing the platform, and the app should be ready before June the 21st:
“This spring, if no on beat us to it, we will be the first large retail bank to carry out cross-border payments at scale with blockchain technology.”
– Nathan Bostock, Santander Bank CEO
Ripple’s Multiple Partnerships
It’s not the first time that Santander is working with Ripple.
Before launching an app, the bank has already invested in Ripple to use its native token – XRP – for cross-border payments.
The most recent venture will allow for money transfers to be settled within 24 hours, as opposed to the current wait that can take up to 3-5 working days.
An additional feature will also show users all fees that are associated with the transfer, despite the fact that Ripple’s technology, the costs will be minuscule.
The app will go live in countries around the world, including Spain, Brazil, UK and Poland.
Ripple is continuously working on improving the current financial system, and the company strives to modernise the transaction process, especially on an international level.
Called the “Western Union of Blockchain Technology”, Ripple was first used by a bank in 2014, and since then it has expanded aggressively by partnering with some financial institutions, such as MoneyGram and Western Union.
The cryptocurrency has been somewhat controversial among the crypto-community due to its centralised nature and clear ownership by the Ripple Labs.
Nonetheless, the fact that Santander and Ripple will launch an international money transfer app could be the first example of a major retail bank using Ripple on a large scale and narrow down the gap between virtual currencies and the general public.
Currently, Ripple is the third most important cryptocurrency in the market according to CoinMarketCap– outranked only by Bitcoin and Ethereum. While the price varies, Ripple has a market capitalisation of almost 25 billion USD.
Read more about the Ripple Currency.
