Santander U.K. has announced its introduction of blockchain technology for international payments through a new app that is currently being rolled out as a staff pilot. The bank plans to make the application, which is only available on Apple’s iOS, available to consumers after it completes the pilot program. The announcement makes Santander the first bank in the U.K. to use blockchain for international payments.
The new Santander app connects to Apple Pay, where users can confirm payments securely using Touch ID. It lets users transfer between £10 and £10,000, and payments can be made from British pounds to euros and U.S. dollars. Currently, payments made in euros can be sent to 21 countries and U.S. dollar payments to the United States only.
“The need for finance has evolved from providing a physical pound in your pocket or card in your purse, where you pay at a till, to being seamlessly integrated into a new, always on, connected lifestyle,” said Sigga Sigurdardottir, head of customer and innovation at Santander. "At Santander we work hard to ensure our banking is simple, personal and fair and believe new blockchain technology will play a transformational role in the way we achieve our goals and better serve our customers, adding value by creating more choice and convenience."
The Santander app is powered by the blockchain technology implementation developed by Ripple, a company in which Santander Innoventures, the $100 million fintech venture capital fund of Santander Group, has invested. Working with Ripple builds on Santander’s philosophy of collaborating with the most innovative companies to consistently provide better services to customers. In June 2015, Bitcoin Magazine reported that, in a paper titled “ The Fintech 2.0 Paper: Rebooting financial services ,” Santander Innoventures issued “a call to action to banks, financial institutions and financial technology (fintech) businesses to […]
