New Santander App Combines Ripple & ApplePay

According to a report from IBTimes the UK division of Santander is using Ripple blockchain technology for international money transfers. Santander employees have tested the new application that connects the Ripple network to Apple Pay by sending transmissions of £10 and £10,000.

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Santander Bridges Ripple with Apple Pay

The new application that uses Ripple’s blockchain is said to have been through heavy testing and experimentation. Santander and Ripple say the app will be quite secure and comply with current regulatory standards. Users can utilize the Touch ID payment system within their mobile phone and fiat currency is available for settlement in USD, GBP, and EUR. Payments can be made 24 hours a day all week long with additional features to come in future releases.

Chief executive officer at Ripple, Chris Larsen, stated in the announcement:

Ripple is redefining the way that value moves around the world, and today we’re already enabling real-time, affordable international settlement between banks who have adopted our solutions. As an early adopter and pioneer in the banking industry, Santander is the first bank in the world to transfer real funds externally. In doing so, they are creating a new, exemplary standard of service.

The Spanish banking giant Santander sees a lot of potential within the Ripple framework and invested $4 million into its $38 million dollar capital holdings. 22 large investors are also involved with the company’s financing rounds including Andreessen Horowitz, AME Cloud Ventures, Blockchain Capital, IDG Capital Partners, Pantera Capital, Fidor Bank, Digital Currency Group, and more.

Members of Santander help with the Ripple senior advisory board are pleased with Ripple’s performance in regards to regulatory compliance. The German-based Fidor Bank was one of the first traditional lending institutions to use the Ripple network. Santander’s Sigga Sigurdardottir told IBTimes they believe distributed ledger technology will be transformative to the financial economy. Sigurdardottir states:

The need for finance has evolved from providing a physical Pound in your pocket or card in your purse, where you pay at a till, to being seamlessly integrated into a new, always on, connected lifestyle. At Santander we […] believe new Blockchain technology will play a transformational role in the way we achieve our goals and better serve our customers, adding value by creating more choice and convenience.

Ripple has been around for quite some time and has been working with legacy institutions. Many cryptocurrency supporters do have an issue with the protocols centralized nature but banking firms are obviously all for it. Because the digital currency maintains its framework within AML/KYC guidelines, traditional finance companies believe it adds trust to the system and will be very useful to customers and B2B applications.

What do you think about Santander using Ripple technology? Let us know in the comments below.

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