According to an announcement from Ripple, PNC Bank, the 9th largest bank in the U.S. with a market capitalization of close to $70 billion, has joined their enterprise blockchain network, RippleNet.
The American banking giant has over 8 million customers spread across the United States and has retail branches in 19 states. The financial institution is predominantly known for their corporate and institution banking.
PNC customers will now be able to benefit from real-time cross-border payments, according to Ripple’s senior vice president, Asheesh Birla.
He added that the bank has already successfully concluded a pilot phase and proof of concept for the payment rail and will immediately start using xCurrent, a Ripple’s existing enterprising software solution for banks and other financial institutions.
XCurrent essentially makes the process of checking information required to make transactions much quicker and doesn’t require any cryptocurrency to work. In the meantime, the financial institution will only be accepting inbound transactions.
PNC joins some of the world’s top financial institutions on the Ripple network, including American Express, Santander, Japan Bank Consortium, SBI to name a few. Ripple has also expanded its reach to six continents and over 40 countries.
The Pittsburg-based bank caters to a large market and offers corporate, consumer and retail banking options. Now that they have adopted xCurrent, PNC business clients from the United States will be in a position to obtain payments from an Australian buyer instantly, for instance.
“Providing instance payments instead of waiting two or three days, that sounds like a short time, but that’s two to three days without access to capital. Having that is real game-changer,” Birla said.
Birla also thinks that using xCurrent in banking is the first step towards adoption of other Ripple products, like the xRapid solution set to be unveiled soon, maybe even next month. “It is a way for the banks to get their toe into the water,” he told news reports.
Some companies like MoneyGram and Western Union, have started testing xRapid, but none have committed to it fully.