SEB is to use blockchain technology from Ripple to enable customers to make real-time intra-bank transfers between accounts in Stockholm and New York.
The Nordic bank says that it has verified that Ripple's technology is compatible with the bank's infrastructure and work is now underway to build an operational system. The first customer transactions are planned for next year, and will offer customers real-time transfers with later cut-off times for initiating transfers than those available today.
“By using Ripple's distributed financial technology, our customers can initiate real-time transfers between their SEB accounts in Sweden and the bank’s branch in New York,” says Paula da Silva, head of transaction services at SEB. “In the next step, we plan to expand the solution to include all geographies and time zones in which we operate".
He says that in the future it is likely that networks with partner banks using the same technology will appear, creating interledger connections for secure real-time payments.
“We face huge leaps in technology and many players compete to create standards that enable global solutions," says da Silva. "It is not possible to predict who will be successful and therefore we have to experiment and try different solutions”.
SEB is part of the R3 blockchain consortium, where some 50 international banks have joined forces in a partnership to develop common standards for the distributed ledger technology.
In August SEB, through its venture capital unit, also made an investment in Coinfiy, a Danish blockchain payments sartup.