SAP partners Ripple to trial cross-border payments via blockchain technology

The partnership enabled the design and built of a proof-of-concept prototype based on blockchain technology. The prototype was used to send a test CAD USD 1,000 payment from ATB Financial to ReiseBank. The payment, which would typically have taken between two to six business days to process because of requirements such as settling with the counterparty bank and reconciling accounts, was completed in around 20 seconds, according to the SAP press release.

The technology prototype connects SAP HANA Cloud, the open platform as a service from SAP, and the SAP Payment Engine application, which centralizes payment processing in one solution, with Ripple’s network. For the demonstration, SAP provided a mobile user interface through which the payment was executed.
Ripple’s distributed financial technology enables banks around the world to directly transact with each other without the need for a central counterparty or correspondent. According to the company, 12 of the top 50 banks are working with Ripple.

ATB Financial is a large Alberta-based financial institution, with assets of USD 46.8 billion. In 2011, the bank migrated its entire legacy banking system to a major new core system built using SAP solutions, making it one of the largest SAP deployments in North American banking.

SAP is working with multiple customers to explore how blockchain technology can support numerous processes, including shared ledger payments and trading capabilities, according to Bitcoinmagazine.com. The company is looking at concepts, technologies, existing implementations, partnerships and future product integrations that will allow SAP to help its customers understand the role that blockchain could play in their business, the site continues.