The Block: Ripple, Vietnam-based TPBank partner for blockchain remittances

Vietnam-based TPBank (Tien Phong Commercial Bank) has joined Ripple’s blockchain-based payments network, RippleNet, seeking faster international money transfers.

Claiming to be the first Vietnamese bank to apply blockchain technology for overseas remittances, TPBank announced Monday that RippleNet will allow its customers to make a money transfer from Japan to a TPBank account in a “few minutes” where previously such a transfer took a “few hours.”

The bank, which was founded in 2008 and has 136,000 billion Vietnamese dong ( ~$6 billion) worth of total assets, plans to also support transfers from Korea in the future.

RippleNet “immediately” updates information and status of each transaction to all parties, ensuring money orders are quickly executed, “error-free and with low cost,” said TPBank.

Last month, London-based fintech giant Finastra also joined RippleNet, which has over 200 financial institutions as its partners and continues to expand further.