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The Bank of England’s FinTech Accelerator announced today that it is conducting a PoC with Ripple to demonstrate cross-border payments and settlement using two different Real Time Gross Settlement (RTGS) systems. This collaboration marks the first instance of a central bank exploring how it can use blockchain technology to enable improved cross-border payments. Ripple’s solution is built around the open and neutral Interledger Protocol and serves to power interoperable payments across different ledgers and networks. The goal of this PoC is to showcase the synchronized movement of two different currencies across two different RTGS systems and how this kind of synchronization might lower settlement risk and improve the speed and efficiency of cross-border payments.

Launched in June 2016, the Bank of England’s FinTech Accelerator works in partnership with new technology firms to harness financial technology solutions for central banking institutions. The Accelerator offers technology companies the opportunity to demonstrate their solutions for real challenges facing banks and policymakers. Selection to participate in this PoC is a competitive process, and at the conclusion may be additional opportunities to showcase the results in a case study, or even continue down a path to becoming an ongoing partner of the Bank of England.

Ripple also participated in the Bank’s recent public consultation for the RTGS Strategy Review, an initiative focused on the design of the next generation of RTGS system for the United Kingdom’s central bank.

“Since establishing Ripple’s London office last year, I’ve seen first-hand how eager customers are to understand the transformative potential of Ripple’s solution,” said Danny Aranda, Ripple’s Managing Director of Europe. “We’re proud to have the opportunity to show the Bank of England – and central banks everywhere – how Ripple can help solve key issues associated with cross-border settlements, and we look forward to continuing this relationship.”

For more information about how we are working with the financial services community, please contact us.