Santander Launches Ripple-Based Money Transfer App

Following months of intense speculation and doubt, Santander has finally come forth and released its official Ripple-based warm-wallet, Exarpy, for public consumption.

In a tweet posted via Exarpy's official Twitter handle, Ana Botin, Executive Chairman of Banco Santander, Europe's largest bank by market capitalization revealed that their two-year long sojourn with Ripple's innovative cross-border payment services have finally borne fruit.

Earlier this year, CryptoSlate had reported on trial programs initiated by Santander to facilitate monetary transactions within various European and South-American countries where the banking powerhouse possesses a good market presence.

In January, the company's UK head, Nathan Bostock, had confirmed that Santander had been testing Ripple's popular xCurrent and RippleNet platforms for streamlining international payments.

"This spring, if not one beats us to it, we will be the first large retail bank to carry out cross-border payments at scale with blockchain technology."

True to his word, with this latest move, Santander has become the first international bank to launch a cross-border payment system that is based exclusively on the blockchain.

Exarpy will initially be offered only to customers living in Spain, the UK, Brazil, and Poland but as time progresses, the banking outfit plans to swiftly enter various other economically viable domains- after initial App glitches and performance issues are ironed out.

The bank w/133M customers worldwide will eventually support more countries and instant payments.

Looking Ahead. With Exarpy's launch, Santander has blown-open the gates for private banks to enter the crypto-payment sector.

Recently, BBVA CEO, Carlos Torres Vila, had also mentioned that his company was testing blockchain platforms for facilitating cross-border payments.