Banco Santander just established a digital investment unit, which will make sure that the bank is effectively implementing the latest technology provided in the Financial Technology sector. The team will be commanded by John Whelan, who is the current Director of the blockchain lab of the bank.
The projects that have been assigned to the team also consist of looking into how tokenized securities can be used in debt capital markets, derivatives and other products.
Santander is known for being one of the first adopters of cryptocurrencies and blockchain technology. From their partnership with Ripple, they have implemented Ripple’s xCurrent technology to process over 50% of their transactions over the last fiscal year, according to previous statements. Ana Botin, Santander’s executive chairman said the following:
“We are covering 50% of all FX payments that Santander does annually [with Ripple]. It works really well because we have been testing it for 2 years. It’s safe, it’s compliant.”
Santander has a service called OnePay FX, which is an app available only for mobile devices. The app allows its users to check what the total fees for a cross-border transaction are while they send money, and after finalizing the transaction the app gives a receipt. It uses xCurrent, a Ripple blockchain technology that deals with cross-border transactions with end-to-end tracking.
Earlier this year, they announced they planned on implementing blockchain in its capital markets business. This will be done with the purpose of changing the way the securities under their management are distributed, traded and confirmed.
It appears that Santander is really enthused regarding its involvement with the blockchain space, as it was recently added as a member to the we.trade consortium. The bank also holds membership at the Enterprise Ethereum Alliance, a consortium which links several companies and services with experts on Ethereum matters.
Regarding the founding of a new unit for the advancement of technology in the sector, Santander’s Senior Executive Vice President, José M. Linares said:
“The wave of digitalisation that is occurring in the financial industry is accelerating. Our clients expect this to result in better solutions, lower costs and new categories of products and services that enable them to access capital markets more efficiently than ever before. We want to offer our clients what they expect from us”.