SBI Remit a money transfer service that’s powered by Ripple has announced a partnership with Japan-based Fukushima Bank. The bank will now be in charge of SBI’s international remittance services.

SBI’s commitment to prioritizing the adoption of new technologies is evident as they have already adopted Ripple’s distributed ledgers. This according to them will make international money transfer safer and faster. As Fintech solution company and handles international remittance services, they have to be on the lookout for new tech to cope with the ever dynamic landscape according to the announcement.

“It is convenient to adopt new financial technologies such as remittance using Ripple's distributed ledger technology.”

Strategic Partnership

In recent years Fukushima has seen an influx of foreign residents especially from the neighboring countries who are in search of work opportunities. After the unfortunate 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake which devastated the Tohoku region affecting the workforce, foreign workers from Vietnam, China, and the Philippines were quite instrumental in rebuilding the Fukushima workforce.

SBI is keen to capitalize on the Fukushima bank's strong network in the Fukushima prefecture. The bank boasts of 48 stores and 5 branch offices in the area with about 10,000 foreign workers. SBI was positive that if the combine their cutting edge tech with the banks' networks they would be able to provide high-value international remittance services to the population in the prefecture with reduced paperwork as indicated in the report.

“We will continue to put our customers' needs first and develop new convenient and secure remittance services using the latest financial technology to provide new value and realize customer-centricity.”

SBI Holdings Main Shareholder at Fukushima Bank.

Late last year industry giants SBI holdings announced a strategic agreement with the Fukushima bank. The partnership saw SBI holdings become the major shareholder of the bank acquiring a stake of up to 18%. This deal included the integration of SBI’s Ripple powered app MoneyTap to Fukushima systems.