SBI Ripple Asia, SBI Remit, a global money transfer service already in partnership with MoneyGram International, and Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank have collaborated to launch the first remittance service running through Japan and Vietnam using Ripple’s Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT).

The money transfer service runs on RippleNet, one of the most sought after settlement platforms designed by Ripple Labs Inc, a blockchain firm based in San Francisco.

The platform is to be used to achieve almost immediate, low cost and seamless money transfer services between SBI Remit and Tien Phong Bank, where SBI Group has a 19.9% share.

The remittance corridor between Vietnamese and Japan is untapped at the moment. Vietnamese residents in Japan have increased by 4.57 times in the last 5 years, presenting a total population of 330,835 in 2018 December.

According to Yoshitaka Kitao, President and CEO of SBI Holdings Inc. and one of Ripple’s Board of Directors, Vietnam has one of the most attractive and booming economies in the world.

Tien Phong Bank has an increasing non-interest income and loans through its use of state of the art technology.

According to Kitao, adopting RippleNet will heighten the bank’s progress and differentiate it among competing firms. The CEO of SBI Group said the corridor will make use of crypto-assets in the near future.

Ripple is increasing its marketing and reach in Asia through SBI Ripple Asia cooperation. With the current relationship between Ripple and SBI Group, different banks in Asia are now joining Ripple for easy and cheap remittance service.

The TPBank is the latest financial institution making use of RippleNet through support from SBI Ripple Asia, a joint holding of Ripple Labs and SBI Holdings. The two co-launched MoneyTap, a cross-border remittance tool running on RippleNet.

SBI Holding has been a long-partner of Ripple. The firm launched XRP-dependent SBI VC. Through Kitao, the rift between Ripple and R3 was settled, with the latter launching a universal settler making use of XRP cryptocurrency.