Bangladesh-based Bank Asia has joined Ripple’s RippleNet blockchain-based financial services network.
The partnership was only recently discovered after a Twitter user pointed out the Bank Asia logo in an official Ripple document on Feb. 10. Still, the partnership must be well over a month old, given that the document in question was published in December 2019.
Bank Asia’s logo is present on a page showing examples of RippleNet users, alongside Santander, American Express, MoneyGram, Send Friend, Standard Chartered, SABB and SBI Group. The LinkedIn profile of the bank’s head of foreign remittances Khandaker Mujahidul Islam shows that he is working on integrating the institution’s system with Ripple’s cross border transaction solution xCurrent since March 2018.
In the description of the project, he writes that he aims:
“To connect the Bank into the Ripple network where numbers of banks and MSBs are connected. End result is a block-chain based networks facilitating real time remittance transfers."
A major banking partnership
According to its website, Bank Asia was founded in 1999, has 2,256 employees, 128 branches and 3,186 agent outlets. The bank’s total assets are worth nearly 289 billion Bangladeshi takas, equivalent to over $3.4 billion as of Dec. 31, 2017. Lastly, the bank also claims to have managed nearly 52 million Bangladeshi takas (over $609 million), by the same date.
Ripple did not immediately provide answers to Cointelegraph’s questions on whether the bank is expected to employ XRP in any way.
Ripple’s increasing popularity among banks
Ripple’s financial infrastructure is growing increasingly popular. As Cointelegraph reported yesterday, the National Bank of Egypt signed a cooperation agreement with Ripple to establish new channels for inward remittances.
Earlier this month, Ripple also formed a new partnership with remittances firm International Money Express to bolster cross-border payments between the United States and Mexico.