Late in 2015, Ripple announced that we were out of the lab. We moved beyond testing and into delivering, integrating with banks all over the world to transform cross-border payments. In 2016, Santander became the first U.K. bank to use Ripple for cross-border payments, offering a simple payments app running on Ripple’s underlying technology.
Today we are building on that foundation, announcing the addition of seven financial institutions to our ever-growing network.
Santander, UniCredit, UBS, ReiseBank, CIBC, National Bank of Abu Dhabi (NBAD), and ATB Financial are among the latest banks to adopt Ripple to improve their cross-border payments.
Ripple CEO Chris Larsen sees this as a major milestone on our long-term path to realizing the Internet of Value:
“We’ve reached a tipping point where financial institutions are moving beyond blockchain experimentation and projects to real world applications that are driving significant bank-to-bank volume. This is a major step forward for the global financial system, and as the Ripple network grows, together we are paving the way for new connected commerce opportunities and growing demands for real-time, high volume, low value global payments.”
These leading banks are taking advantage of Ripple’s distributed financial technology to drastically reduce the time and cost of settlement and optimize high volume, low value global transactions. Many of these financial institutions are already using Ripple to transfer actual money, and all are aiming to implement the technology in widespread commercial production.
As the only provider of enterprise blockchain solutions, Ripple’s growing, global network includes 12 of the top 50 global banks, ten banks in commercial deal phases, and over 30 bank pilots completed, among many others also using Ripple’s solutions.
We’re very pleased to share feedback from some of these banks on their use of Ripple technology:
Paolo Cederle, CEO of UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions:
“Blockchain and related technologies are a paradigm shift from the status quo and increasingly a major focus of innovation for us. That’s why we’re committed to moving beyond the lab and testing environments. Through our partnership with Ripple, we are optimizing our global payments and one of the first major banks to implement distributed financial technology in a commercial setting.”
Curtis Stange, ATB’s Chief Strategy & Operations Officer:
“Using blockchain technology, ATB Financial became the first financial institution in Canada to complete an overseas payment in a matter of seconds. Without blockchain, that transaction would have taken two to six business days. Blockchain is transforming the way we store and move value. While there’s still a great deal to learn, the transaction we performed proves we can significantly reduce the time it takes to move money across borders. This could revolutionize banking for our customers.”
Ramana Kumar, Managing Director & Head of GTB Business and Product Management at NBAD:
“NBAD is continuously exploring opportunities to provide exceptional customer experience. Blockchain and distributed ledgers will enable our clients to seamlessly send payments across our network in the most efficient and cost effective way. Ripple will enable our clients to access wider network more efficiently and with full visibility and transparency.”
Phil Griffiths, Senior Vice President, Global Transaction Banking at CIBC:
“Distributed ledger technology has the potential to transform the financial industry and greatly improve our client experience by making it easier and faster to move money globally. Working with partners like Ripple, we are excited to be collaborating on this journey to be at the forefront of these innovative new developments for our clients.”
At Payments Panorama in Calgary last week, Ripple demonstrated a live transfer of real funds between two of these banks: ATB Financial and ReiseBank. The audience there witnessed a transaction settling in seconds between banks on two continents, with clear fees and complete certainty.
They saw the future of cross-border payments.
See the future for yourself here.
