Ripple’s payments subsidiary has joined forces with Swiss bank Amina to give it access to its payment infrastructure.
In a Ripple Payments announcement made on Friday, the company stated that Amina will be able to “settle transactions more efficiently without relying on traditional payment infrastructure, making transactions faster, lower cost, and with increased reliability and transparency.” This follows a prior collaboration, where the bank integrated the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin back in July .
This development also strengthens Ripple’s foothold in Europe, given that Amina is regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority. The bank’s Austrian branch also holds a license under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) granted by Austria’s Financial Market Authority in October.
Amina’s chief product officer, Myles Harrison, noted that “native web3 businesses often run into friction when working with legacy banking systems,” asserting that stablecoins can mitigate these challenges. “This is especially true for cross-border stablecoin transactions that traditional banks have yet to fully adopt.”
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Banks need crypto services for crypto companies
Harrison elaborated that the bank’s clients “require payment infrastructure capable of managing both fiat and stablecoin rails simultaneously,” a service traditional banking networks fail to provide. Conversely, Ripple Payments enables Amina to offer these services, thereby “reducing cross-border friction and helping our crypto-native clients maintain their competitive edge.”
Cassie Craddock, Ripple’s managing director for the UK and Europe, stated that the collaboration enables Amina to “serve as the on-ramp for digital asset innovators into traditional financial infrastructure.” She added that Ripple Payments acts as a “bridge between fiat and blockchain,” facilitating seamless stablecoin payments.
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Ripple onboards traditional finance onchain
This marks another partnership where Ripple has infused blockchain capabilities into a traditional financial institution. Reports from mid-November indicated that the company is investing roughly $4 billion to integrate prime trading, treasury tools, payments, and custody to challenge traditional finance.
Ripple’s ambitions are also expansive. Earlier this month, the company received approval from Singapore’s central bank to expand its payment operations. This allows Ripple to offer regulated token services, end-to-end payments, and growth opportunities across the Asia-Pacific region.
By the end of November, RLUSD was also authorized for use by institutions in Abu Dhabi after being recognized as an Accepted Fiat-Referenced Token by the local regulatory authority.
