By
Chimamanda U. Martha
April 18th, 2024
MoneyTap mainly provides international remittance services to foreign workers living in Japan but has plans to expand globally.
Three Japanese banks have adopted Ripple blockchain-based peer-to-peer (P2P) remittance service MoneyTap. This is according to an April 17 announcement by SBI Remit, the remittance-focused branch of financial services firm SBI Holdings.
Effective April 17, the RippleNet-based mobile MoneyTap application is now supported by three major banks belonging to Yamaguchi Financial Group – Yamaguchi Bank, Momiji Bank, and Kitakyushu Bank. Yamaguchi Bank is a key player in the local financial sector, with 156 branches in Japan and four overseas locations while Kitakyushu Bank has operated 24 branches since its launch.
The integration will allow the banks to provide P2P payment services to clients. Users will be able to make online payments through both mobile phone numbers and bank account numbers. According to SBI Remit, the application uses online identity verification and biometric authentication to ensure the security of its users.
“In addition to the bank account number, a remittance function using a mobile phone number is also implemented, and by combining online identity verification at the time of account registration and biometric authentication at the time of use, user experience (UX) and security are compatible […] In addition, Yamaguchi Bank, Momiji Bank, and Kitakyushu Bank ensure high security by performing two-step authentication when linking bank accounts with Money Tap,” the announcement read in part.
The MoneyTap mobile payment service was integrated into SBI in 2019 following the joint launch of MoneyTap in October 2018 with blockchain services provider Ripple. The service, designed for instant domestic inter-bank and P2P transfers, was initially supported by three local banks SBI Sumishin Net Bank, Suruga Bank, and Resona Bank. SBI Remit went on to merge with MoneyTap in September 2022.
MoneyTap mainly provides international remittance services to foreign workers living in Japan but has plans to expand globally. The service is currently available in India, a country with a population of over 1.4 billion.
“Going forward, we aim to provide seamless and efficient remittance services to a wide range of customers on a global level, regardless of domestic or foreign exchange,” the company revealed.
SBI has been a public supporter of Ripple in its ongoing legal battle against the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). In 2021, Morningstar, an SBI Group financial data subsidiary, announced that it would carry on with its XRP shareholder benefits program despite the blockchain firm’s legal issues in the US. In the same year, SBI CEO Yoshitaka Kitao said that Ripple was more very likely to move to Japan if it eventually had to leave the US for regulatory reasons.