Belgium-based global banking network Swift today announced that it plans to integrate R3’s trade finance platform with its own Global Payments Innovation solution (GPI). Speaking at the Paris Fintech Forum, CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt explained that the platforms would merely explore potential integration of their cross border payment solutions.
Speaking on stage at the Paris Fintech Forum, SWIFT CEO Gottfried Leibbrandt today said
“Our new GPI platform is extremely interoperable and open, and we’ve always had links to other networks”
Leibbrandt further added “We are announcing later today a Proof-of-Concept with R3 blockchain on trade, where you can initiate a payment on the trade platform, and then it goes into GPI. So we’re exploring interconnectivity with a lot of things.”
R3, a blockchain solution firm for businesses, last month launched a universal settler application on Corda to facilitate global payments. Corda is an open-source blockchain firm that is working on spreading digital currencies across the global financial system. XRP, the native digital asset of the leading Fintech firm, Ripple, has been chosen for the first settlement process. The official Twitter handle of r3 stated:
“R3 is proud to announce the release of Corda Settler, an open source CorDapp that allows #Corda users to settle using any payment method. The first payment rail enabled for Corda Settler is the #XRP Ledger.”
Why did Swift chose R3 and not Ripple?
Ripple CEO said at a CNBC panel discussion that they are open for a partnership with SWIFT but no company confirmed any kind of cooperation.
Garlinghouse repeated his views on the aging SWIFT network, calling it slow and expensive payment network. He added that decentralization was a better alternative to centralized payment settlement networks.
“Decentralized systems I think over time are likely to win,” Garlinghouse said. “I think that today that is not what Swift is.”
Nevertheless, SWIFT had evading any connection with cryptocurrencies, citing asset volatility as one of the major issues. Leibbrandt affirmed that they had to let Ripple’s offer go because their asset XRP was too volatile.
“I think that the big part of Ripple’s value proposition is the cryptocurrency XRP,” Leibbrandt told CNBC. “There we do find the banks are hesitant to convert things into a cryptocurrency right now because of the volatility in the currencies.”
What does this mean for XRP?
Before the XRPArmy starts rioting on social media, it should be noted that Corda is not Corda Settler (the app that uses XRP) and this is just a trial, not a full-fledged integration.
There might be a test case where Swift uses R3 Corda Settler and by extension XRP token as well but that is a long shot. Since Corda Settler will support other types of coins in the future as well, volatility-averse Swift might find stablecoins more suitable to use.
