The payments network Ripple could be about to pick up a large share of the Japanese currency transfer market. The firm is looking to launch the MoneyTap application with support from the SBI Ripple Asia Japanese Bank Consortium later this year.

MoneyTap App Looks to Reduce Fees Associated with Traditional Money Transfer Services

Although the deal between Ripple and the consortium has been planned for a few years now, it looks like the firms involved are putting the final preparations together to launch the MoneyTap application in Japan. Whilst the app itself was announced earlier this year, the website for the service only went live today according to Finder.

The application is not ready for download just yet. However, the website going live shows that it will be soon. The page itself gives a projected launch date of autumn 2018.

Initially, the application will be working in collaboration with just three of the members of the SBI Ripple Asia Consortium. The first banks involved are SBI Net Sumishin Bank, Suruga Bank and Resona Bank. This preliminary launch will be followed by a staggered rolling out of the service for the other 60 plus members.

Ripple are hoping that the move will place them at the centre of the vast Japanese international money transfer market. They are going head to head with existing services such as SWIFT and believe they can offer a much more affordable way to transfer smaller amounts of money than was previously feasible with traditional options.

Not only will the costs of sending money drop, so too will the time taken. Ripple claim that they can guarantee reliable same-day transfers. By offering a service capable of completely outperforming the competition, it seems likely that the MoneyTap application will be a hit.

However, fans of the Ripple project, and particularly the native XRP token, should hold off on celebrating just yet. There is no indication from Ripple that the MoneyTap app will use the XRP at all. Like with many of the projects Ripple is working on, it could be that the service exists without using the token itself. Whilst this would likely be positive for those invested in terms of exposure, it would not represent adoption of XRP per se.

Given the progress they are making in the established banking world, it would make sense for Ripple to sideline their XRP token given that it is still not clear whether global regulators deem it as a security. Despite CEO Brad Garlinghouse’s protestations, such a classification would surely harm all operations by the firm relying on the token itself.

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