According to a press release published on 27 July, Ripple has implemented its first On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service in Japan. SBI Remit, the largest money transfer provider in Japan, has teamed up with mobile payments service Coins.ph and digital asset exchange platform SBI VC Trade to facilitate remittance payments from Japan to the Philippines.
The Philippines is the third-largest destination for remittances from Japan, with Ripple estimating that Filipinos send around $1.8 billion in remittances every year. However, Japan is one of the most expensive countries when it comes to remittance costs, whit senders paying almost twice as much as they would pay in all of the G8 countries on average.
By leveraging Ripple’s native XRP to eliminate pre-funding, SBI Remit and Coins.ph will be able to provide users with faster and more affordable remittance options.
“We see tremendous potential in leveraging blockchain technology to transform not only the way payment transactions are made but in how we manage our business by unlocking trapped capital,” said Nobuo Ando, Representative Director of SBI Remit.
Ando noted that the company will continue to work on introducing other innovative financial products, and added that it might expand its real-time payments outside of the Philippines as well.