Internet giants like Alibaba and Softbank are on the hunt globally for mobile-money and electronic payments platforms, increasingly built on blockchain technology.
BBVA, the big Spanish bank, is moving to bolster its own such offerings in Mexico with the acquisition of Mexican payments platform Openpay and the launch of a money transfer serviceusing blockchain technology from Ripple.
With a network of 15,000 payment points in Mexico, Openpay processes one million transactions each month for more than 1,000 small businesses and large corporations.
With Ripple’s software, BBVA expects the move to cut the time it takes to complete an international transfer from four days to a few seconds. Ripple estimates its software could cut costs for customers by up to 81 percent.
Banks are increasingly looking for fintech partners to help them ride the ongoing disruption in financial services.
