By
Mayowa Adebajo
April 18th, 2024
The service will be powered by the Ripple’s xCurrent distributed ledger technology which facilitates same day global payments.
Spanish banking giant Banco Santander has recently announced the launch of its new international payment system that is based on the revolutionary blockchain technology to retail customers across the four European nations – Spain, Brazil, UK, and Poland. The bank also said that in the coming months it will roll out the services to other destinations as well.
The new payment services dubbed as the Santander One Pay FX will facilitate global fund transfer for its customers taking place the same day or to the max on the other day. The service also shows the exact amount that will be received by the recipient in the destination currency before initiating the transfer.
The banking giant has confirmed that its service will be powered by the xCurrent distributed ledger technology that is owned by San Franciso-based blockchain startup Ripple. This announcement comes just in a period of two months when the Spanish Banking Group announced its ties with Ripple, back in February.
The bank confirms that it will be bringing additional services for its customers besides enabling instant international payment transfers in several markets before the summer this year. With the launch of this current service, Santander claims the crown of being the first bank to roll-out a blockchain-based international payment service to its retail customers across different countries, simultaneously.
While commenting on the launch of this new service, Executive Chairman of Banco Santander, Ana Botín said: “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”.
Botín said that her enthusiasm for this project grew after she saw her son using a rival service that could quickly transfer payments within Spain. Santander has been working for over two years on this payment system before finally launching today to its customers.
Botín further went to describe the service saying: “One Pay FX uses blockchain-based technology to provide a fast, simple and secure way to transfer money internationally – offering value, transparency, and the trust and service customers expect from a bank like Santander. From today, customers in the UK can use One Pay to transfer money across Europe and to the US. In Spain, customers can transfer to UK and US, while customers in Brazil and Poland can transfer to the UK.”
She further added: “Transfers to Europe can be made on the same day and we are aiming to deliver instant transfers across several markets by the summer. 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.”
Banco Santander has been investing in Ripple since 2015 through its venture capital fund InnoVentures. Till now the bank is said to have invested over $200 million in Ripple technology while the fund is said to have over 20 investments across the spectrum of financial technology startups in the fields of the blockchain, artificial intelligence, financial advisory, big data and others.
Ripple too has been seen expanding its wings in the blockchain space as it recently made a $25 million investment, in form of XRP tokens, in Blockchain Capital.