Japan’s MUFG Bank Signs MoU for Ripple-Based Remittances to Brazil

MUFG Bank, and its wholly owned subsidiary, Banco MUFG Brasil S.A., announced the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with Banco Bradesco S.A. to collaborate on a new cross-border payment service.

MUFG Bank is the principal banking unit of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc. (MUFG), one of the world’s leading financial institutions. Bradesco, based in São Paulo, is a leading universal bank in Latin America.

Through this MOU, MUFG Bank has decided to start the collaborative development for cross-border payments between Japan and Brazil, utilizing Ripple’s cutting-edge technology. The new payment system -- developed by Ripple, a San Francisco-based software vendor -- will assist the banks as they work toward commercializing a high-speed, transparent and traceable cross-border payments solution between Japan and Brazil. In 2017, MUFG Bank said it would join Ripple’s interbank group of leading transaction bankers responsible for building, maintaining, and enhancing rules which ensure operational consistency and legal clarity to support the Ripple global payments network.

The MOU is an extension of an existing September 2017 collaboration agreement between MUFG Bank and Bradesco, and represents the banks’ most recent business engagement. In fact, the relationship between MUFG Bank and Bradesco dates back to 1973 when an MUFG Bank predecessor bank invested in the Brazilian financial institution.

MUFG Bank has had a presence in Brazil since 1919, when Yokohama Specie Bank, Ltd., another MUFG Bank predecessor bank, opened a branch in Rio de Janeiro – the first Japanese financial institution to establish a foothold in Brazil. MUFG Bank provides specialized services in Brazil, and across Latin America, for corporates in industries including metals and mining, oil and gas, food and beverage, power and utilities, agriculture, and financial services. The bank also offers products such as local cross-currency bonds and loans, trade finance, foreign-exchange and derivatives, structured finance, project finance, syndicated loans, and transaction banking.