Ripple adds 7 banks as technology partners to build R3-style collaboration network

Ripple, an international bank payment solution provider using distributed ledgers, has announced the addition of seven new banks to their technology partnership network, becoming the first company in the world to truly use blockchain-based technology for cross-border transfers.

The seven banks include Santander, UBS, UniCredit, ReiseBank, Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD) and ATB Financial.

Canada's ATB has completed the first Canadian dollar to euro blockchain transaction with ReiseBank, a subsidiary of Germany's Central Cooperative Bank. In addition, Ripple said that they are preparing to establish partnerships with 90 banks, have completed more than 30 trials, and are currently negotiating commercial products with 10 banks.

Marcus Treacher, general manager of Ripple’s London office, said:

“We are working with some of the largest global banks. It’s real. We are starting to build a network.”

Marcus Treacher

Blockchain consortium enthusiasts will no doubt be watching Ripple’s banking network grow into a competitor to the R3 banking consortium. In fact, the two collaborative networks could complement each other. Ripple CEO Chris Larsen has said that he believes solving the international bank payment channel problem is a necessity and will help other forms of settlement.

Treacher agreed:

“If we can make payments more fluid, that will be the basis for other things to also run on the blockchain. I’m not sure if you remember the first Eurostar train to Waterloo, it went through northern France at 300 mph, but it came into London at 25 mph because the tracks in London couldn’t handle that.”

In the interview, Larsen believes that this collaboration is proof that industry adoption of Ripple’s technology is increasing and that these partners are getting more serious about using Ripple’s products for real money transfers.

Larson said:

“We are at a stage where a lot of banks are moving towards commercial products. What is important is that distributed ledger technology is moving out of the lab and into real-world deployment.”

Chris Larsen, CEO of Ripple

The partnership announcement comes as Santander is testing a product using Ripple’s technology among its own employees, with plans to make it available to the public later this year.

In the statement, Curtis Stange, ATB’s director of strategy and operations, said his company has used the technology for cross-border payments. CIBC and NBAD as a whole have expressed interest in Ripple and the efficiency of its technology.

Currently, many financial institutions are constantly exploring Ripple's technology, believing that the Ripple platform is an outlier in the blockchain-based network.

For example, Ripple partners have been vocal about using the Ripple platform to exchange more traditional payment information rather than XRP, the digital asset that powers the Ripple Consensus Ledger (RCL). In this way, these partners say they are able to bring banks and market makers into the data-sharing environment while also reducing costs.

Larsen said he believes most Ripple customers are using RCL and Ripple Connect, which allow users to exchange know-your-customer (KYC) and compliance information before initiating a transaction. But over time, use of the XRP digital asset may increase because it can reduce costs.