Ripple partners with SBI Remit, Coins.ph to use XRP for Japan-Philippines remittances

San Francisco-based payments technology company Ripple has partnered with SBI Remit, Japan’s largest money transfer provider, mobile payments service Coins.ph and digital asset exchange platform SBI VC Trade to use XRP for remittances between Japan and the Philippines, according to a company statement.

Fast facts

• The partnership — Ripple’s first on-demand liquidity service implementation in Japan — will see SBI Remit, Coins.ph and SBI VC Trade use Ripple’s ODL service, which leverages XRP as a bridge currency, for cheaper and faster remittances.

• Despite its legal troubles in the U.S., Ripple has been pushing ahead with its payments business, particularly in the Asia-Pacific region, which has been one of the fastest growing regions for the company, with transactions growing 130% year over year, according to the statement.

• The Philippines has more than 5 million of its citizens living abroad, and the Filipino diaspora is one of the 10 largest in the world. The Philippines is the third-largest remittance-receiving country in Asia after India and China. It is the third-largest destination for remittances from Japan (10.5%), which has some of the highest remittance costs in the world.

• “The expansion of our relationship with SBI Remit to kickstart RippleNet’s ODL service in Japan marks a major milestone in one of our largest markets. SBI Remit has been a leader when it comes to embracing new technology to deliver the best customer experience,” said Asheesh Birla, general manager of RippleNet at Ripple.

• Nobuo Ando, representative director of SBI Remit, said in a statement: “We see tremendous potential in leveraging blockchain technology to transform not only the way payment transactions are made but in how we manage our business by unlocking trapped capital. The launch of ODL in Japan is just the start, and we look forward to continuing to push into the next frontier of financial innovation, beyond real-time payments in just the Philippines, but to other parts of the region as well.”

• SBI Remit joins Ripple’s existing ODL customers in the region, such as Novatti and Tranglo, in using RippleNet and XRP for fiat on- and off-ramps. As part of the partnership, SBI Remit will connect with other partners on RippleNet and utilize XRP to grow its payments business. SBI Holdings is an investor in and shareholder of Ripple.

• XRP was trading at US$0.71 as of press time, up more than 20% since last week, according to CoinGecko data.