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Thanks to SBI Remit, Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) and Ripple, 45,000 Thai nationals living in Japan can send money home faster.

Remittance flows between Japan and Thailand have been steadily growing and currently make up roughly $250 million[1] USD annually. Yet, the remittance infrastructure hasn’t kept up with customer needs. Funds transfers can take up to two days, fees average a whopping 5-7%[2] for each transaction, and there is no visibility into when funds actually arrive.

SBI Remit and SCB turned this problem into an opportunity to add value to their customers while also creating a new revenue opportunity estimated at $10-15 million per year.

The rollout of the service begins today. It’s the first commercially-available remittance service powered by Ripple. Those who use SBI Remit in Japan can instantly send money in JPY to a recipient’s SCB savings account in Thailand and receive funds in seconds.

Dr. Arak Sutivong, chief strategy officer, SCB, said: “We are proud to be the first bank in Asia to use Ripple’s leading blockchain network solution to power real-time payments for our customers, whose families oftentimes depend on the availability of these funds for basic needs – time is of the essence to them.”

Mr. Nobuo Ando representative director, SBI Remit Co., Ltd. said: “It is our duty to continuously search for superior technological solutions to deliver ever improved remittance services for our customers. In this case, Ripple was impressive in concept and turned out to be more so in practice. Furthermore, we can expect to have more favorable foreign exchange opportunities as Ripple’s network expands. For this, we welcome more institutions to join and help us offer competitive remittance services over conventional methods to our valued customers.”

Over the long-term, the service will also be available in SCB’s other key markets across North America, Europe and Asia Pacific.

At Ripple, we are thrilled to work with innovative banks who are embracing new opportunities to solve payment challenges for their customers. Contact us to see how to connect with other Ripple-enabled banks.

[1]Source: World Bank

[2]Source: World Bank