Back in October 2018, Resona Bank, a sister concern of Resona Group and the fifth largest Japanese banking group, joined the venture along with SBI Sumishin Net Bank and Suruga Bank.
MoneyTap, which was launched on October 3, uses Ripple’s blockchain-based payment transfer solution xCurrent that facilitates instant bank-to-bank transfers.
The app was jointly developed by SBI Holdings, the Japanese financial services firm, and Ripple, the creator of XRP, the third largest cryptocurrency by market cap. The three banks which participated in the project are SBI Sumishin Net Bank, Suruga Bank and Resona.
MoneyTap was developed using distributed ledger technology. The app allows users to transfers funds using receivers telephone number or a QR code, without paying any additional service charges. The app also features fingerprint scanning for additional security.
Last month, the app received funding from 13 banks and financial institutions including Kiraboshi Bank, Shinsei Bank and Hokuriku Bank. The banks have only taken a stake in the project but do not seem to have opted for using the technology as of date.
Before the launch of MoneyTap’s app in October, SBI Holdings was authorized by Electronic Settlement Agency Service Provider to process electronic payments. David Solomon, CEO of Goldman Sachs, the leading global investment bank, denied reports that it planned to open a crypto-trading desk.
Spain’s banking behemoth Santander introduced a money transfer app based on Ripple’s DLT technology a year ago. Referred to as Santander One Pay FX, the app lets customers to usually carry out global fund transfers within a single day.
In the past two years, SBI Group has been working overtime in crypto related projects such as the launch of an exchange, mining cryptos, investing in the creation of hardware wallets and recently beginning to start producing mining processors.