SBI Ripple Asia will begin testing a new blockchain-based remittance platform between Japanese and South Korean banks by the end of the year.

SBI Ripple Asia, a joint-venture company established by Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings and San Francisco-based FinTech startup Ripple is gearing to bring Ripple’s enterprise blockchain solutions for cross-border payments in the South Korea-Japan corridor and wider global markets.

The firm will partner DAYLI Intelligence, a South Korean FinTech firm which provides blockchain solutions and AI-tech infrastructure of its own, to facilitate and establish the platform in South Korea.

Takashi Okita, SBI Ripple Asia chief executive commented:

South Korea is one of the most active markets worldwide when it comes to blockchain innovation and trading of digital assets. With trade flows into and out of the country totaling $960 billion every year, we also see a high end growing demand for Ripple’s frictionless payments solution in the country.

As reported by CCN.com in January 2016, SBI Ripple Asia was established to meet the rising demand for cross-border payments in Asia, with a particular focus on ASEAN nations including Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and China. Come August last year, SBI Holdings and subsidiary SBI Ripple Asia launched a new banking blockchain consortium in Japan to develop and test blockchain solutions for domestic and foreign exchange.

The consortium, which includes Japan’s three megabanks – MUFG, Sumitomo Mitsui and Mizuho – along with 60 other regional banks, completed a breakthrough money transfer pilot of domestic money transfers using a Ripple-powered cloud payments platform.

Ripple has seen success in powering near-instant international retail bank transfers in the region. Earlier in June, Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank and Japan’s SBI Remit collaborated to launch a new blockchain payments rail between the two countries. Available to commercial banking customers, the funds transfer service will enable individual remittances from Japanese Yen to Thai Baht within “two to five seconds”, Ripple revealed.

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