With the leading Japanese fund transfer platform MoneyTap officially launching its dedicated web portal, the development opens the doors for connecting several Japanese banks through the Ripple-based solution. While the Ripple-powered MoneyTap app was announced in March this year, it is set to roll out across dozens of Japanese banks through Fall 2018. The app is expected to be available on iOS and Android phones and will facilitate instant and zero- to low-cost money transfers. If things go as planned, the Ripple technology may be able to seize a bulk portion of the global money transfers going in and out of Japan in the coming days. (See also, Japan's Biggest Bank Is Releasing Its Own Cryptocurrency In March.)

MoneyTap to Challenge Japan’s Traditional Remittance Market

The traditional SWIFT-based money transfers face challenges of high transaction costs and longer processing durations, and the system remains inadequate for small amounts of consumer money transfers. (See also, How the SWIFT System Works?)

To circumvent the problem, an initiative was launched in 2016. Called the SBI Ripple Asia Japanese Bank Consortium, it was led by Strategic Business Innovator Group (SBI), a financial services company based in Tokyo, Japan, with a group of 15 Japanese banks that intended to use Ripple’s technology for processing payments and settlement. It has since expanded to 61 member banks, and the group now accounts for nearly 80 percent of banking assets in Japan. The bank-networked platform is supportive of the Ripple technology and its XRP token and has the power to revamp the entire remittance and payment ecosystem that currently exists in Japan. SBI is leading the promotion of Ripple technologies across South East Asia and already has a partnership with SIAM Commercial Bank (SCB) of Thailand that facilitates real-time money transfer using Ripple’s blockchain enterprise solution called xCurrent.

MoneyTap pitches itself as a kind of “simple bank transfer application without charge” and “a new bank experience application provided from the consortium for domestic and foreign exchange,” according to CoinSpeaker. Once in service, the MoneyTap app ecosystem will not only compete against the global SWIFT-based banking system, it will also compete with remittance companies like The Western Union Co. (WU). The launch will also bolster Ripple’s claims of offering a robust and dependable technology platform that can form the backbone of the modern day payment processing system. (See also, Bitcoin's Most Profitable Use: the $600 Billion Overseas Remittances.)

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