Ripple to Invest in Japan’s SBI Subsidiary MoneyTap

Ripple plans to invest in MoneyTap, the blockchain payments firm birthed through a joint venture between the San Francisco-based startup and Japan’s SBI Holdings, the companies announced Wednesday.

• The value of the investment has not been announced yet, CoinDesk Japan reported.
• MoneyTap, a blockchain money-transfer app launched through a joint venture between SBI and Ripple called SBI Ripple Asia, went live in 2018. Like Venmo, the app allows users to send and receive money with their telephone numbers or QR codes.
• MoneyTap uses Ripple’s global financial settlements network RippleNet to provide the payment services, which include peer-to-peer transfers, overseas remittances and corporate payments.
• Delays, high costs, uncertainties and opacity in processing international remittances are prompting hundreds of financial institutions to adopt blockchain solutions like Ripple Net, which directly connects the remittance bank and receiving bank while sharing information through a distributed ledger.
• "The high interbank fees in Japan have not been corrected for more than 40 years, and it is a special situation internationally," SBI said in a statement, adding the blockchain app could help reduce transfer fees in remittance payments.
• In addition to SBI Holdings, MoneyTap is supported by a number of Japanese financial institutions including Sumitomo SBI Net Bank, Daiwa Securities Group Headquarters, Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation, Sumitomo Mitsui Trust Bank, Ashikaga Bank, Ogaki Kyoritsu Bank and Seven Bank.
• Resona, one of the three Japanese banks that first signed up for the project in 2018, dropped out in April 2019 without providing any reason for the departure.