A payments platform owned by Australian banks and the Reserve Bank of Australia has brought legal proceedings against Ripple Labs, alleging the cryptocurrency giant has copied its brand.
San Francisco-based Ripple uses cryptocurrency for cross-border payments and in June the company, which is valued at over $US10 billion ($14 billion), launched a crypto-based “PayID” service with 40 partners.
However, the launch of Ripple’s PayID service in Australia is being challenged by the New Payments Platform Australia (NPPA), a company owned by 13 Australian banks including ANZ, NAB, CBA, Westpac and the RBA, which has commenced legal proceedings in the Federal Court.
Adrian Lovney is the chief executive of the NPPA which has brought the proceedings. Credit:Dean Sewell
The NPPA launched its PayID service in February 2018 to enable instant payments between 68 million Australian bank accounts using identifiers like phone numbers, email addresses or ABNs instead of a BSB or account number.