No Ripple vs SWIFT Face Off as Head of Poland’s Second-Largest Bank Joins Brad Garlinghouse on Payment Systems 2020 Round Table

There has been lot of excitement among the Ripple and XRP community about the upcoming face off between Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse and Swift CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt on the upcoming Blockchain Economic Forum to be held on 24-26 January, 2019.

However, according to the updated speakers list, Michal Krupinski, President of the Management Board and head of the Bank Pekao will be discussing the topic “Is the new era of decentralized payment systems coming?” with Brad Garlinghouse on the Round Table Payment Systems 2020.

This got the XRP community talking as some are now speculating the possibility of Bank Pekao to be another Ripple partner. One such enthusiast shared in part,

“(Bank Pekao) This bank used to be owned mostly by Unicredit (Ripple Partner) until 2016, when Unicredit decided to sell most of its shares to some polish insurance company. Bank Pekao is known for its technological openness (they were the first in Poland to offer electronic banking for example) so I think it's very probable that Bank Pekao is another Ripple Partner that hasn't been announced yet. Maybe we'll find out next week.”

However, another one has this to say, “I really doubt that. They might be another xCurrent customer, but current tax rules in Poland are unfavorable to any cryptocurrency transactions.”

Well, it’s all just speculation right now and if they are really one of the Ripple’s client, we’ll soon get to know, by the end of this week.

XRP enthusiasts have things to say about Swift CEO not attending the event as well. The reason for same is not known, however, one quipped, “Good decisions. Why go there to embarrass yourself.” While another commented, “He realizes he would lose.”

The agenda of the event (https://bef.latoken.com/davos) as shared on the website is:

“The emergence of a blockchain central bank for developing countries and a potential structural change in capital markets is the key topic for the upcoming LATOKEN BEF. We gather 100+ high profile economists, regulators, government officials, investors and bankers for deep roundtable discussions and compelling personal stories for informal night receptions.”

However, Ripple and Swift will still share the same stage at the 1TC conference in Rust, Germany where Marjan Delatinne, Ripple’s global head of banking and Wim Raymaekers, Swift’s global head of banking market will be going head-to-head to share their views on the future of cross-border payments.