Korean Banks Join Forces with Ripple on XRP Seoul Stage

Korean banks Kbank, Kyobo Securities, Woori Bank, and Jeonbuk Bank have joined forces with Ripple on the XRP Seoul stage, a significant development in the country's growing interest in blockchain and cryptocurrency.

The event, held during Korea Blockchain Week, saw representatives from these banks take part in a panel discussion on 'From Cross-Border Payments to Tokenized Deposits'. The discussion was tokenization-heavy, as predicted by the organizers, who noted that the event had grown from 3,000-plus attendees last year to over 5,000 this year.

Kbank, which has partnered with Ripple in April this year, has seen significant growth since then, particularly in its remittance system, which has been verified and is now moving to a second phase that tests onchain transfers to countries such as the UAE and Thailand.

Woori Bank, on the other hand, has no announced Ripple deal, but its presence on the panel suggests that Korean banks are exploring partnerships with multiple crypto vendors, including Moonpay, which it signed up with just four days before the event.

Jeonbuk Bank, which became the first regional bank in Korea to deploy Ripple Payments in August, is extending near real-time cross-border settlement directly to the businesses it serves.