Santander Group Announces a Major Breakthrough with Ripple
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In the recent drop of the crypto market, Ripple seems to be the hardest hit, among the top 50 coins. Despite it being the 3rd ranked, it has shown minimal increase in price, which was not expected by investors. This is because, banks and payment providers have shown great interest in the ripple technology which investors thought would have a huge effect on the XRP token price. Unlike bitcoin, ripple cannot be mined and the 100 billion tokens were originally created at inception in 2012.
Santander’s breakthrough with ripple
Santander has been in the works testing the new mobile app in the staff pilot stage, since May 2016. Last week they announced, through their spokesperson, that it will be rolled out soon. During the pilot period, they tested the app by connecting it with Apple Pay to allow processing of payments. Ripple powers the new app using the xCurrent solution. Ripple serves two independent functions; as a payment processing protocol and as a digital currency, XRP.
Fast and secure cross-border payments
Due to the ripple technology, Santander will be able to initiate fast processing of payments across border in less than a minute. This was not possible before and thus the new mobile app, powered by ripple’s xCurrent, will help improve cross-border transaction times. The app will be simple to use as it will include a digital wallet and a personal finance manager to help customers navigate the interface with ease.
The bank is looking to roll out the app in 4 countries
Santander looks to roll it out in the first quarter of this year, which will be available in 4 countries. Since Santander is a UK-based company, the UK will be among the four, then Brazil, Poland, and Spain. It will make payments in USD, EUR and GBP.
Not an XRP product
xCurrent does not use XRP, which is ripple’s cryptocurrency and this means that it may have little or no effect on the price of ripple on the crypto market. In short, banks do not need XRP to transfer payments across border. However, banks can still use XRP to complete multiple payments, whether in fiat or cryptocurrencies, in less than a minute. The Santander’s new app announcement comes at a time when the price of XRP is below $1 and even though they will not use XRP, it is still good news.