Executive Chair of Santander Talks Ripple, Says Bank is Innovation-Centric

While many have questioned when institutions will adopt crypto and blockchain, some already have adopted the technology, making use of products from Ripple, the blockchain of Ethereum, and other decentralized ledger solutions meant to aid their bottom line. One of these institutions is Banco Santander, a Spanish multinational commercial bank and financial services company that is the 16th largest bank on Earth.

Ripple Name-Dropped in Bloomberg Interview
Banco Santander SA Chairman Ana Botin recently sat down with Bloomberg in New York to talk about her firm’s plans and current business model. During this interview, the Santander executive spent a moment to name drop Ripple, specifically in the context of her firm being an innovation-centric institution. Botin, when asked by the anchor about how Santander has been working in fintech, said:

We’re 100% in favor of innovation… We’ve partnered with Kabbage, Ripple, and many other American companies. What we’re doing is we want to take these companies and services when we don’t approve a loan, we can pass it on to Kabbage; Ripple is at the base of One Pay FX blockchain base [system.]

For those who missed the memo, last year the Spanish firm unveiled a new service, “‘Santander One Pay FX.” This is an international payments service that allows customers to, from a top-down level, “complete international transfers on the same day in many cases or by the next day.” One Pay is centered around xCurrent, a global real-time gross settlement system.

Santander’s venture capital fund, InnoVentures, invested $200 million in the Silicon Valley-based fintech startup in 2015.

While Botin’s small mention of Ripple shouldn’t have much of an effect on Ripple’s stock, it is interesting to see one of the heads of one of the world’s largest banks mention the fintech company on Bloomberg, especially when it wasn’t a mention that was prompted.

This news comes months after Santander revealed that it is working on a “payment corridor” that would allow Latin American residents to send funds to the US instantly and at no cost. The payment corridor has been established through One Pay, which again uses Ripple technology.

Santander Likes Ethereum Too
While Santander is involved with Ripple, it has shown interest in using Ethereum’s technology too. Per previous reports from this outlet, the firm earlier this year settled a $20 million bond through ERC-20 tokens, which represented custodied cash, on the public iteration of the Ethereum blockchain.