As officially announced by Ripple on Oct. 9, the new partnership will allow hundreds of Finastra’s customers to connect and transact with RippleNet to provide faster and cheaper cross-border payments.
United Kingdom-based financial software firm Finastra has partnered with Ripple to join RippleNet, a global blockchain payments network with over 200 members.
Faster integration with partners
In turn, over 200 financial institutions on RippleNet will have access to Finastra’s network of banks, allowing mutual customers to access and partner with each other, the firm stated.
Users will be able to send international payments with end-to-end tracking and monitoring of the fees, transaction time and status. The collaboration also intends to boost the speed of integration with other network partners and enable faster upgrades, according to the announcement.
On-demand liquidity with XRP
Additionally, Finastra’s customers will have the option to use on-demand liquidity, which leverages Ripple’s cryptocurrency XRP for cross-border payments.
Riteesh Singh, senior vice president at FMS Finastra, noted that a partnership with a firm like Ripple is specifically beneficial for customers in “geographies where cost of correspondent banking is high.” He added:
“Finastra’s collaboration with Ripple is another strong example of Finastra’s belief that the future of finance is open, and it demonstrates our commitment to bringing the latest innovations and choices to our customers.”
Meanwhile, Finastra has been an active player in the financial blockchain applications sphere. In May 2019, the firm added three more banks – BNP Paribas, Natixis and Societe Generale – to its R3 Corda blockchain-based syndicated loans platform following previous pilots in 2017.
As Cointelegraph reported on Oct. 3, Samsung’s mobile payments service Samsung Pay has partnered with RippleNet member Finablr to offer cross-border payments feature Money Transfer to its app’s users.
Financial Firm SBI Holdings to Offer XRP Cryptocurrency as Shareholders’ Benefit
Japan’s crypto-friendly financial services company SBI Holdings will give shareholders the option to receive the XRP cryptocurrency as a benefit.
SBI announced on Friday shareholders could either take the benefit in XRP or another product offered by health food and cosmetics subsidiary SBI Alapromo.
Under the scheme, new shareholders on the company’s registry as of the starting date of March 31 can accept XRP to the value of 2,000 yen (around $18), while those who’ve been shareholders for over a year will receive 8,000 yen ($73.50) in the cryptocurrency.
The Alapromo alternatives include cosmetics, health supplements and brown rice powder. All shareholders are being given a 50-percent discount on supplements and cosmetics sold by the subsidiary.
There is caveat for those who would take the XRP benefit: they must be resident in Japan and have an account at SBI’s cryptocurrency exchange VC Trade, which launched in 2018 as the first crypto trading platform backed by a bank.
SBI has been one of the most active corporations in crypto and blockchain. As well as the exchange, it has a crypto mining division that recently was reported to be involved in potentially the world’s biggest bitcoin mine under development in Texas.
The firm has also formed a joint venture with Ripple, which is involved in the development of XRP, to offer a cash transfer app called Money Tap. That project has seen participation from a number of Japanese banks.
It has further teamed with blockchain consortium startup R3 to market R3’s Corda platform in Japan and the region. Also announced by SBI on Friday, Japanese bank Sumitomo Mitsui agreed to join that venture with a view to potentially using Corda technology.
