Ripple Banking Blockchain Network Expansion: Mizuho Financial Uses Ripple Technology to Trial Cross-Border Payments, R3 Advisor

Mizuho Financial Group has announced that it will this week trial the use of Ripple’s distributed ledger technology for cross-currency settlements.

The Japanese financial services company is also a member of the R3 blockchain consortium. In this trial, it will work with another Japanese financial services group, SBI Holding, to use Ripple’s payment solution to explore how to conduct cross-border payments between financial institutions. R3 will serve as an advisor to the project.

Representatives from Ripple said the trial is expected to evolve into real payment messages and eventually transfer real money between companies. The startup, which has raised $38.6 million in funding, said the test is expected to go live before the end of the year.

The trial is Mizuho’s latest settlement experiment and follows a trial announced in March that used the Open Asset Protocol, a layered protocol on top of the bitcoin blockchain, for cross-border securities settlement.

Another participant in the trial, SBI Holdings, will play an integral role in the trial, as the company entered into a joint venture partnership with Ripple Labs this year. As a result, Mizuho will be able to expand its blockchain-based operations in the Asian region by leveraging SBI’s presence in this area.

Unlike other blockchain solutions on the market, Ripple allows banks to have more control over their applications, which makes Ripple popular with banks. Ripple's cooperation with SBI allows Ripple to access areas where transactions and remittance payments are concentrated. SBI's business covers more than 20 countries, including China, South Korea and other ASEAN countries, helping Ripple enter new markets.

Ripple is building its own blockchain network and recently added seven new banks to its network - Santander, UniCredit, UBS, Reisebank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, National Bank of Abu Dhabi and ATB Financial - which will all use its blockchain solution for cross-border payments.

Chris Larsen, CEO of Ripple, believes that the platform has reached a tipping point. Financial institutions are moving beyond blockchain experiments and projects to applying the technology to real life. This major shift in the financial system combined with the development of the Ripple network will pave the way for new business opportunities and the growing demand for real-time, high-volume, low-value global payments.