Today Santander published its 2017 earnings presentation. This document, among other things, contains their key achievements, revenue results, and most importantly their strategic priorities for 2018.
The goal of the company is to be the best open digital financial service platform. And to scale and innovate their services. They want to improve customer experience efficiently implementing different technologies and platforms, including a "distributed ledger technology."
On this presentation, they stated, and I quote: "We expect to be one of the first global banks to roll out Distributed Ledger Technology based payments for individuals." The huge news is that they intend to implement Ripple's technology into its international payment services in 4 countries during Q1 2018.
Right now the whole cryptocurrency market is experiencing a correcting downtrend. However, news like this one can return our hopes in certain cryptos like XRP. Even if Santander is not interested in using the liquidity products of Ripple at this moment, partnerships like this one will allow Ripple to offer other services toter customers, like X rapid which use XRP. But they need to first, establish strong relationships with key players in this strategy.
Think about this as a beachhead strategy. If you're a pirate that try to conquer an island, you can't capture it all at once; you have to move slowly with caution, understanding where you are, who's your enemy and which territory is your best opportunity to dominate first. So you can establish there, and move forward to govern a more significant area, at the end. You'll conquer the whole island. It's the same in business. Companies usually follow a strategy like this one with their customers and partnerships. You can't expect people widely adopting XRP from the beginning. You need to let this plan develop and overtime, it will be used as a digital currency by major banks and institutions.
Some people don't understand this because some cryptocurrency enthusiasts don't understand business. And that can be very dangerous for the long term if you're only investing considering hype without understanding the underlying principles of their technology but also and probably most importantly, of economics and business. Because in the end, blockchain and cryptocurrency, will all be about business, and not about principles and beliefs.
Let me know yout thoughts on the comment section bellow.
Thank you for your time.
Presentation:
https://www.santander.com/csgs/Satellite/CFWCSancomQP01/en_GB/pdf/Earnings_Presentation_ENGLISH_4T17.pdf