Santander First UK Bank to Launch Blockchain App for International Payments
Santander blockchain app goes live for a new foreign exchange service, becoming the first international bank to launch a cross-border payments system using blockchain technology.
The ‘One Pay FX’ service is available for Santander customers in Spain, the UK, Brazil and Poland. These four countries attribute to around half of the annual FX transfers made by individual Santander customers.
The service has shortened international money transfer times from several days, to the same or next day. The bank said, it plans to offer the blockchain app to small business customers and expand to more countries in the coming months.
Santander’s venture capital fund ‘InnoVentures‘ invested in Ripple back in 2015. ‘One Pay’ has taken two years to develop, using distributed ledger technology developed by Ripple.
Santander Executive Chairman, Ana Botín has said that she encouraged the blockchain project after seeing her son using a rival service to transfer money into Spain more quickly.
“Blockchain technology offers tremendous opportunities to improve the services we offer our customers, and the launch of Santander One Pay FX is the first of many potential applications” – Ana Botín
Eventually, the the aim is to make the Santander blockchain app ‘One Pay FX’ available to customers from any other bank, moving in on fintech territories and companies such as TransferWise.
