XRP In-Store Payments Becoming A Reality Via SBI Banking Giant

XRP in-store payments will be available soon since the Japanese banking giant SBI claims to be working on it. In today’s altcoin news, we take a closer look at the developments.

The Japanese SBI bank will be integrating XRP with the Ripple-based remittance app named MoneyTap. This app will use simple QR codes in order to provide people an instant, seamless way to pay for products and services with their XRP coins. The SBI says they will test out the app at a Tokyo-based restaurant before launching the service officially for retail customers by the end of 2019.

The app is licensed fully by the Japanese regulators and is currently using the Ripple-based cross border payment solution xCurrent in order to power up the instant remittances between about 13 banks in the region. SBI is also working to roll out MoneyTap to a banking consortium that is led by the SBI Ripple Asia where 61 banks are participating, covering more than 80 percent of all banking assets in the country.

SBI holdings are one of the largest banks that get heavily involved in cryptocurrency. The company created the first bank-owned crypto exchange named VCTRADE and it recently announced that it will work hard to bring institutional investors to the platform, offering ethereum, bitcoin, and XRP. The bank noted:

“SBIVC currently offers services only for retail customers. After AML/CFT and custody solutions that we are planning to implement are finalized, we would like to move forward and start providing services to institutional investors.’’

SBI is also a strong supporter and partner to Ripple so the XRP in-store payments come naturally for the company. They invested in the San Francisco startup back in 2016 and the CEO of the bank Yoshitaka Kitao was recently appointed to Ripple’s board of directors. According to co-founder Chris Larsen, Kitao will play a very important role in helping the startup expand around Asia. As it was reported in the best cryptocurrency news sites, Larsen was quoted saying:

“From conventional financial markets to digital asset markets, his deep understanding of the financial services industry will offer valuable business and financial expertise to help Ripple continue to scale. Approximately half of our customers are located in Asia-Pac today, and we’re rapidly expanding our global footprint across the region. Mr. Kitao comes at a perfect time for Ripple as we look to deepen our customer base in Asia and beyond.’’