SBI Remit, a subsidiary of the larger SBI Group, is collaborating with Hamamatsu Iwata, a major Japanese lender, to ease the process of outward remittances using RippleNet’s Blockchain infrastructure.
Announced earlier this week, SBI Remit’s role in the partnership is to expand the overseas market reach of the already existing international remittance platform of Hamamatsu Iwata Credit Bank.
A Major Remittance Market
The deal was inked in the wake of increasing demand for cross-border transactions originating from Japan that has been fueled by the rise in the foreign workforce in the country. The announcement pointed out that Japan’s growing older population has made the country rely heavily on foreign workforce.
Workers travelling to Japan from other countries increased significantly over the years, and the figure is anticipated to grow further. This has generated a massive demand for awkward remittances from Japan.
“Our mission is to provide financial services centered on remittances to foreign residents, and we use Ripple ’s distributed ledger technology, which is characterized by speed of deposit and low fees,” SBI stated.
SBI is a long-standing partner of the American blockchain company Ripple. The two are running a joint venture to promote Ripple’s products in the Asian markets. Now, the giant is trying to capture Japan’s growing remittance market early by pushing blockchain technology in it, thus making the services faster and cheaper.
Furthermore, Ripple’s strong ties in Asia helped the company while it is facing US regulatory woes over the status of the XRP token, whether it can be categorized as an unregistered security or not.
Meanwhile, SBI promoted the use of RippleNet to establish other remittance corridors. In late 2019, SBI Remit and SBI Ripple Asia joined hands to initiate money transfer services between Japan and Vietnam using blockchain technology.
