IBOS Banco Santander today announced the launch of a new international payments service, ‘Santander One Pay FX’, using blockchain-based technology across four countries.
The new service makes it possible for customers to complete international money transfers on the same day (in most cases) or by the next day. This service is now available to retail customers in Brazil, Poland, Spain and the UK, with expectations that the service will roll out across more countries in the coming months.
The service also allows the customer to see the exact amount that will be received in the destination’s currency before making the transfer.
More features will be added in the upcoming months, including offering instant international payments in several markets before the summer. This will make it significantly faster than existing international payment services.
With the launch of ‘Santander One Pay FX’, this makes Santander the first bank to roll out such a service in multiple countries simultaneously.
Ana Botín, Executive Chairman of Banco Santander, commented:
“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.
“Our goal is to help the thousands of people who use international payments services every day, and we will be adding more currencies and destinations in the coming months.
“Blockchain technology offers tremendous opportunities to improve the services we offer our customers, and the launch of Santander One Pay FX is the first of many potential applications”.
This service uses xCurrent, a technology based on distributed ledgers owned by Ripple (which Santander invests in via InnoVentures, the bank’s FinTech venture capital fund).
Read the full press release via Santander here. Read more via the FT here, behind a paywall.
