In a rare act for the fiat paper sector, a major player – DBS – named a cryptocurrency in its public marketing collateral and called it more cost-efficient and effective than the traditional SWIFT system.
«Fintechs are also looking to disrupt cross-border payments. Most fintech solutions currently available are in the retail space and tend to focus on reducing foreign exchange spreads,» the bank said on its website. «Ripple is an example of a fintech looking to disrupt correspondent banking for cross-border payments at commercial scale.»
The bank added that SWIFT’s lack of speed and customer understanding compared to fintech competitors like Ripple led it in 2015 to introduce a new program, Global Payment Initiative (GPI), designed to improve cross-border bank payment behavior, improve transparency and enable clients to better track parents at near real-time levels.
Tech Hotspot: South Asia
DBS demonstrated awareness of the credibility attributed by publicly naming a cryptocurrency which it acknowledged for both its regional and its perceived shortcomings.
«This official mention has been seen as a major leap in the field of finance, an ecosystem that has ignored crypto for its speculative behavior and the lack of a centralized governing party,» it said. «DBS Bank is a major banking player in the South Asian landscape, a territory that has become a hotspot for new pathbreaking technologies.»
The bank is not alone in exploring the prospects of cryptocurrency usage in the financial sector with Singapore rival OCBC having successfully executed the city-state’s first blockchain-based remittance. Last month, it used an Ethereum-powered system to complete the pilot transaction to major Philippines lender Union Bank.
