BBVA has run its first live cross-border transaction using the Ripple protocol.

The funds transfers between Spain and Mexico cut transaction times from four days to a matter of seconds.



Alicia Pertusa, head of digital transformation in investment banking at BBVA, says: “This pioneer initiative is a clear demonstration of how payment processes can be vastly improved through the implementation of emerging technologies. These improvements will benefit our clients’ transactionality."



Shorter clearing times are just one of the benefits, she adds, pointing to the ability to provide clients with more details about costs and a transparent view of payments progress.



A member of the R3 consortium, the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance and Hyperledger, BBVA is currently running several pilot projects to explore tha application of distributed ledger in multiple use cases across the bank.