Standard Chartered and Axis Bank launches Cross-border Payment Service Powered by Ripple

Standard Chartered and Axis Bank today announced launch of real-time cross-border payment service for corporates using Ripple’s distributed ledger technology solution. Set to revolutionise the payments industry, this offering is now commercially available for cross-border payments between Standard Chartered Bank Singapore and Axis Bank India, and, accessible through Standard Chartered’s corporate digital banking platform, Straight2Bank.

The new service will see corporate payments from clients of Standard Chartered (Singapore) in SGD to accounts in Axis Bank, India’s third largest private sector bank, in real-time, with end-to-end visibility into the journey and cost of the transaction. This is set to revolutionise corporate supply chains between Singapore and India by improving the speed, transparency and cost of international payments.

Gautam Jain, Global Head, Digitisation and Client Access, Transaction Banking, Standard Chartered, said, “The successful launch of our commercial cross-border payment service marks a significant milestone in the financial industry’s progress in applying distributed ledger technology for corporates. We are incredibly proud to be leading the way in this area. This affirms our commitment to digitisation and innovation as we continuously look at new ways to add value for our clients and their ecosystems; in this case, corporates trading between Singapore and India.”

Leveraging Ripple’s proprietary distributed ledger technology solution, the new payment service gives corporates greater control over cash flow. This is made possible by the near real-time nature of payments over Ripple including full transparency of associated fees, which can be advised before transactions are executed. In addition, these payments are pre-validated, providing straight-through processing and fast settlement that lowers the overall cost of processing the payment while allowing for greater certainty.

Himadri Chatterjee, President, Transaction Banking, Axis Bank, said, “While there have been significant innovations in domestic payments, cross border remittance has seen limited developments. Using APIs and distributed ledger technology, there is an opportunity to radically change the way international payments are handled. We are excited with the potential of the technology to bring innovative services to the market and help us enhance value to our customers.”