Spain’s Banco Santander Bank today launched Santander One Pay FX, a blockchain-based international money transfer service across four countries.
This new service is the first of its kind, according to the bank, and was developed by blockchain firm Ripple. The service is available to retail customers in Spain, UK, Brazil and Poland. The bank plans to roll the service out across more countries in the coming months.
Ana Botín, executive chairman of Banco Santander, said in a media statement emailed to Bank Innovation:
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.
Transfers to Europe can be made on the same day and we are aiming to deliver instant transfers across several markets by the summer.
Based in Spain, Santander is the largest bank in the Europe by market capitalization. With over 113 million customers, the bank has about EUR 182 billion (about $224 billion) in assets under management.