Ripple, India’s Federal Bank Team On Cross-Border Payments

Federal Bank in India has partnered with blockchain payments company Ripple to facilitate cross-border payments, according to reports.

Federal Bank confirmed the collaboration in an announcement to the Bombay Stock Exchange on Thursday (March 28).

“This is to inform Federal Bank has entered into a partnership with Ripple Inc, a blockchain supported global remittance company, for cross border remittance through its network,” the announcement said. “Powered by blockchain-enabled solution, the Ripple platform ensures cross-border transactions much safer and secured.”

It isn’t known if the partnership will include cryptocurrency or not, especially since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), the country’s central bank, issued a statement saying it wouldn’t support the digital currency. Even though some appealed the stance, the country’s supreme court upheld it.

Regardless of its position on cryptocurrency, the country is very pro-blockchain.

In fact, in July of last year, RBI created a division geared toward artificial intelligence (AI) and blockchain, Cryptovest reported. The division aims to bring the bank up to speed on emerging technologies and potentially draft regulations in the future.

“As a regulator, the RBI also has to explore new emerging areas to check what can be adopted and what cannot,” a person familiar with the matter told The Economic Times. “A central bank has to be on top to create regulations. This new unit is on an experimental basis and will evolve as time passes.”

Also in India, in May of 2018, Infosys formed a blockchain with seven banks, and it is known as the India Trade Connect. The banks include IndusInd Bank, RBL Bank and Axis Bank, among others. Infosys stated that “the network is being used by the banks to run a successful pilot of Finacle Trade Connect, a blockchain technology-based solution developed specifically to address the trade finance process requirements of banks.”

The firms said risk management and transparency will be part of the network, with an eye on digitizing business processes.