- With Miyazaki Bank, the 37th Japanese financial institution has joined the RippleNet based project Money Tap as a shareholder.
- Money Tap uses the former xCurrent protocol from Ripple and therefore does not currently use XRP.
Yoshitaka Kitao, president and CEO of SBI Holdings, announced yesterday that Miyazaki Bank, the 37th Japanese financial institution, will become a shareholder in Money Tap. The smartphone application was already released two years ago for iOS and Android through the joint venture of the Japanese group SBI (60%) and Ripple (40%), SBI Ripple Asia. As stated in the official press release of SBI Holdings, Miyazaki Bank will now participate in the “community-based” financing of the project:
Based on its management philosophy of “co-existence and co-prosperity with local communities”, The Miyazaki Bank will continue to engage in community-based financing that contributes to the revitalization of the local economy, and will actively promote the smooth supply of funds and support for the expansion of customers’ business performance and business revitalization.
The application is based on the former xCurrent protocol from Ripple (now integrated into RippleNet) and therefore currently does not use the XRP token. The aim of the application is to facilitate and improve both cross-border payments and domestic Japanese payments.
Bank transfers in Japan are only available at limited times. The app, on the other hand, allows transfers to be sent 24/7, with the transfer being made using a bank account, telephone number or QR code. Furthermore, MoneyTap also avoids the costs associated with existing bank and ATM fees in Japan and offers completely free transfers, as emphasized in the press release.
In addition, Japan’s persistently high interbank fees are a unique situation internationally. By providing the next generation financial infrastructure, MoneyTap will help revitalize economic activity and improve international competitiveness by applying a sound competitive principle to the existing rigid payment infrastructure fee levels.
As further stated in the SBI Holding announcement, the consortium is currently working on expanding the functionality to include prepaid fees and peer-to-peer transfers.
The central role of SBI for the adoption of Ripple and XRP
SBI Holdings is considered one of Ripple’s most important partners in Asia. The Japanese financial conglomerate has repeatedly initiated and implemented Ripple-based projects in Japan in recent months and years. The central figure is SBI Holdings CEO Yoshitaka Kitao, who is also a member of Ripple’s board of directors.
SBI Ripple Asia, the joint venture formed by SBI and Ripple, consists of 61 Japanese banks, which cover more than 80% of banking assets in Japan. Notably, the consortium announced late last year that it intends to capture up to 50% of the total RippleNet transaction volume once the technology infrastructure for the XRP based payment solution ODL (On-Demand Liquidity) is in place to send remittances from Japan to other banks in Southeast Asia.
