Ripple Labs has so far raised $US34.4 million ($45 million) from a range of backers including Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures and IDG Capital Partners and has signed on smaller institutions like Germany's Fidor Bank and a number of US banks, but CBA is the first major bank to publicly disclose its plans to use it.

Planning for future tech

CBA has enjoyed a reputation in recent history of being a pioneer in technology, in relation to other financial institutions, due in large part to a mammoth program to replace its ageing core banking platforms with a modern system. However Mr Whiteing said it needed to press on with a tech agenda.

"One of the things that my leadership team talks about quite a bit is that today we are a technology team in a bank that has a technology halo, tomorrow if we get this right, we will be a technology company that does banking services," he said.

Mr Whiteing said the bank could not bet on always being ahead of the curve, so needed to design its systems and hire the right staff to be able to react quickly to industry-changing ideas emerging from the tech sector. This will include tearing up the bank's carefully-prepared hiring procedures when the need arises.

"We should mirror the society in which we operate, so if we become really good at being inclusive we will be able to harvest the ideas and be able to respond quickly," he said.

"Our graduate recruitment process is like every big corporate … it is optimised to get the best and brightest graduates that are extremely well-rounded and show great leadership potential. But quite frankly they are useless in some teams that I have got, where I actually need the person who has the first class degree, but sits in the corner of the cafeteria and really doesn't like to talk to people … but is also awesome in crypto or data science."

Following Mr Whiteing's speech director of financial services at technology startup Tilikum Investments, Jodi Stanton, said the bank's use of Ripple has significant positive implications for financial innovation in Australia.

"If the momentum can be carried through with enabling policy and investment, innovation at this institutional level can provide significant consumer savings as well as opportunities for Australian fintech investors and entrepreneurs," Ms Stanton said.

"Consuming these new sources of instant liquidity opens the opportunity for entrepreneurs with the technical know-how to offer a variety of new services, from very fast, low-cost cross-border remittances to new hard asset mobile digital currencies. Opportunities exist to be a price taker or a price maker, or both, and early participants, be they institutions or entrepreneurs, can open a "seat on the exchange" with their own digital offers."