Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), the first bank of Thailand, has partnered with Japan’s SBI Remit, and is using Ripple’s blockchain solution in order to pioneer real-time remittance payments between Japan and Thailand.

This cross-border payments network solution by Ripple will help remittances from Japan reach SCB retail customers easily, and faster than before. The release said that total remittance flows from Japan to Thailand are roughly $250 million a year.

“We are proud to be the first bank in Asia to use Ripple’s leading blockchain network solution to power real-time payments for our customers, whose families oftentimes depend on the availability of these funds for basic needs - time is of the essence to them. We look forward to continuing our partnership with Ripple as we expand the service into other key markets in the future,” Dr. Arak Sutivong, chief strategy officer, SCB, commented.

With the instant bank-to-bank payments between the two markets, both SBI and SCB aims to create a new revenue opportunity that is estimated at $10-15 million per year.

Earlier this year, Ripple and SBI Holdings struck a multinational deal to create a new company ‘SBI Ripple Asia’, in order to meet growing demand for Ripple solutions across Asia.

“Ripple’s goal is to make cross-border payments move as quickly and as easily as information does today. In the case of SBI Remit and SCB, our solution helps ensure that remittances from Japan reach their destination in Thailand near instantly. SCB and SBI Remit are leading the way in Asia in serving new customer demands for real-time cross-border payments, making theirs a highly competitive offering,” Marcus Treacher, global head of strategic accounts, Ripple, stated. “We are excited to expand our relationship with SCB further across their other key markets, and to continue the momentum with commercial traction for the Ripple network worldwide.”