Multinational Spanish banking group BBVA announced that it has successfully completed first real-time cross-border money transfer using Ripple blockchain technology between Spain and Mexico.

The blockchain-based money transfer was executed within seconds, thus reducing the time taken in traditional methods that took up to four days to clear. The use of blockchain technology offered significant progress to improving the customer experience in transactions involving Latin America corridors, the announcement stated.

“This pioneer initiative is a clear demonstration of how payment processes can be vastly improved through the implementation of emerging technologies. These improvements will benefit our clients’ transactionality,” Alicia Pertusa, head of Digital Transformation in Investment Banking at BBVA, said.

The application was developed in support from Ripple’s blockchain solution and this marks a clear indicator on how BBVA’s international payments service could evolve in the future.

Apart from addressing time delays, the blockchain solution allows clients to have access to much clearer information about the costs associated with the process. They can view the status of their payments during every transactions. With the help of integrated messaging and settlement, those parties involved in the transaction will gain access to all the payment-related information.

“We are very excited that BBVA, one of the most tech-forward banks in the world, has joined the Ripple network to transform their cross-border payments. While others are content to merely experiment with blockchain, BBVA is working with us to move real money and in doing so, will establish the future new level of service for their customers,” Marcus Treacher, Global Head of Strategic Accounts at Ripple, stated.

BBVA is working on several blockchain pilots to understand as well as explore the nascent technology. BBVA recently collaborated with Alfa Bank to use blockchain startup BlockNotary’s solution to onboard new customers, in its proof-of-life and identity verification processes. BBVA is a member of the R3 consortium and recently joined the Ethereum Enterprise Alliance and Hyperledger.