First Bank in Kuwait to Adopt Ripple for Instant Cross-Border Payments

The Kuwait Finance House (KFH) confirmed its move to join RippleNet, an enterprise blockchain network from industry giant Ripple, for international remittance payments, becoming the first bank in the Arab nation to do so.

KFH, also Kuwait’s first Islamic bank, indicated its intention to use Ripple’s ‘unique tool’ for cross-border payments for its retail customers.

With this, KFH can provide instant and secure cross-border money transfers within seconds, with end-to-end visibility over the journey of the payment.

A KFH spokesperson emphasized that its integration of Ripple has solidified the bank’s position at the forefront of blockchain development in the country, when he said “This is great news for the Kuwait Finance House, as it continues to add solid foundations to the major banking partnerships. The fact that KFH is the first bank in Kuwait to operate in this way will pave the way for more customers to access services through the RIBL network.”

Details of the offering are currently scarce and it remains to be seen if the bank uses Ripple’s xCurrent, an enterprise blockchain software that enables settlements in fiat or xRapid, a product which uses Ripple’s token cryptocurrency XRP for real-time liquidity for international transactions.

While the bank says it will require the approval of the Central Bank of Kuwait (CBK) prior to the launch of the Ripple-enabled service, KFH insists customers will benefit from faster payments in increased efficiency, security and transparency of the transaction at markedly lower costs than traditional remittance solutions.