Multinational financial institution, Crédit Agricole next bank, has announced that its testnet for cross-border fund transfers that runs on the Ripple blockchain is now live.
The system not only aims to support international payments but have foreign exchange transactions and currency trading as standard. Such operations are currently being executed between Crédit Agricole next bank accounts, based in Switzerland, and Crédit Agricole des Savoie accounts in France.
The bank’s head of the data department, Nicolas Frances, was quick to point out, however, that adoption of the Ripple blockchain for the processing of payments is not inherent support of the XRP token. Their implementation is primarily to increase speed and efficiency of digital fiat to mimic cash transactions. Crédit Agricole CEO Catherine Galvez:
What we’re testing right now is to provide the same experience as cash, with instant transactions from one account to another, but in a much simpler and more secure way. The associated fees would also be more transparent. We want to offer a premium service, both on rates and user experience, with this technology.”
Crédit Agricole next bank supports 45,000 customers, 8,000 of which joined just last year. They have set targets in place to recruit a further 55,000 customers by 2023.
The testnet will run until June of this year.
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