Standard Chartered and Axis Bank have unveiled a real-time cross-border payment service for corporates using Ripple’s distributed ledger technology (DLT) solution.

This offering is now commercially available between Standard Chartered (Singapore) and Axis Bank India, and, accessible through Standard Chartered’s corporate digital banking platform, Straight2Bank.

Himadri Chatterjee, president, transaction banking, Axis Bank, says by using APIs and DLT there is an “opportunity to radically change the way international payments are handled”.

The new service will see corporate payments in SGD to accounts in Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank.

The banks say the service gives corporates “greater control over cash flow” as Ripple’s network offers “full transparency of associated fees”, which can be advised before transactions are executed.

In addition, these payments are pre-validated, providing straight through processing and “fast settlement that lowers the overall cost of processing the payment while allowing for greater certainty”.