Santander has rolled out its Ripple-based international money transfer service for personal customers in Spain, the UK, Brazil and Poland.
Santander has been piloting the mobile-based application for 18 months with bank staffers. Plans for the live roll out were first revealed by Finextra on the occasion of the bank’s 2017 earning presentation.
The bank is using xCurrent, a technology based on distributed ledgers owned by California-based Ripple to power the service. InnoVentures, Santander’s $200 million fintech venture capital fund, invested in Ripple in 2015.
Ana Botin, Santander executive chair, says: “Blockchain technology offers tremendous opportunities to improve the services we offer our customers, and the launch of Santander One Pay FX is the first of many potential applications”.
She says the bank plans to add more features in the coming months, including offering instant international payments in several markets before the summer.
Under the current offering, each of the four countries will offer customers different payment options depending on the market. Customers in Spain, for example, will be able to send dollars to USA and pounds to UK. Customers in the UK will be able to send euros to 21 countries and dollars to USA, and from Brazil and Poland, pounds can be sent to the UK.
“Transfers to Europe can be made on the same day and we are aiming to deliver instant transfers across several markets by the summer,” says Botin. “Our goal is to help the thousands of people who use international payments services every day, and we will be adding more currencies and destinations in the coming months.”
