Kuwait Finance House (KFH), the first commercial bank in Kuwait established in 1977, announced on May 26, 2018 that it has begun testing Ripple blockchain protocols to settle global payments and instantaneous remittances in a decentralized way.
The agreement between KFH and Ripple brings significance in expanding Ripple's influence throughout the Middle East, as it is one of the first commercial financial institutions listed on the Kuwait Stock Exchange. By 2016, the market valuation of Kuwait Finance House is $ 8.2 billion, so Ripple has added another multi billion dollar financial institution to their partner consortium.
"KFH is the first bank in Kuwait to join RippleNet for cross-country instant payments using blockchain technology," said Kuwait Finance House.
A spokesman for Kuwait Finance House stressed that its integration with Ripple has strengthened the bank's position at the forefront of the development of blockchain in the country. The spokesman said, "This is good news for Kuwait Finance House, as it continues to add a strong foundation for large banking partnership. The fact that KFH is the first bank in Kuwait to operate in this way will make way for more customers to access the services through the RIBL network. "
Hundreds of Network Banks Worldwide
Throughout 2018, RippleNet has established strategic partnerships with more than one hundred major banks in South Korea and Japan to process payments through RippleNet, which operates the same as the global SWIFT network.
Since December 2017, Japan Bank Consortium, an organization of 61 banks in Japan overseen by SBI Ripple Asia, and two of South Korea's largest banks Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank continue to run trials to utilize the Ripple blockchain protocol processing across border payments.
"The Bank of Japan's consortium with Woori Bank and Shinhan Bank brings us closer to sending money in important corridors.The use of RippleNet to send cross-border payments reinforces that the financial institutions are ready to provide a modern payment experience and enable the Internet of Value , "said Ripple executive Emi Yoshikawa.
Despite having hundreds of banks in Asia, Europe, the United States and South America in its consortium and network, Ripple continues to seek new partnerships with banks such as Kuwait Finance House. This is because RippleNet and other Ripple blockchain solutions like xCurrent and xRapid basically operate as liquidity solutions. Ripple will gain in the long run