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Ripple has launched an expansive new feature for banks and financial institutions ahead of the company’s Swell 2018 conference in San Francisco.

The new tech is called “multi-hop” and allows companies that use Ripple’s blockchain to settle payments on behalf of other firms. Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) is the first company to adopt the technology.

Ripple designed the technology to help smaller financial institutions boost liquidity and lower fees.

“The inefficient management of global liquidity has long been a hurdle for cross-border payments in all regions across the world. However, this problem is particularly prominent in the Association of South Eastern Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, which has been largely underserved by correspondent banking. As a result, cross-border payments into these countries are inefficient and racked with high fees…

With multi-hop, financial institutions can connect directly to SCB, which can settle and payout across the region without exchanging currencies multiple times and adding heavy fees. The result is a seamless payments experience into and out of the ASEAN region. For smaller financial institutions which previously did not have the ability to make payments into ASEAN, multi-hop will democratize access to those countries and make payments easier, regardless of payment size or their financial institution’s pool of liquidity.”

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Meanwhile, Ripple is gearing up for its big yearly crypto conference in San Francisco. Swell 2018 officially kicks off Monday at 11:00 a.m. PST, with keynote speaker Bill Clinton. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse will follow suit, with a speech of his own at 1:00 p.m.

You can check out Ripple’s long list of speakers and the overall agenda here.

Finally, XRP continues to battle Ethereum for market cap supremacy. The coin briefly overtook Ethereum once again to become the world’s second biggest cryptocurrency. The reign was short lived, as Ethereum quickly regained second place.

At time of publishing, XRP is just over 59 cents on CoinMarketCap.