- Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB) with an estimated value of $4.6 billion joins RippleNet.
- OCB has potential ties to the Chinese government and its integration could lead to greater adoption of Ripple in Asia.
Phong Nguyen, VP, Head of Fintech and Project Management for the Vietnam-based Orient Commercial Joint Stock Bank (OCB), has revealed a new partnership with Ripple. Considered one of the most important banks in the Asian country, OCB manages around $4.6 billion in assets. Nguyen said they have joined RippleNet and are therefore now “strategic partners”.
The OCB’s headquarters are located in Ho Chi Minh City. The institution has more than 130 branches throughout the Asian country. Its services are focused on providing loan services to retail clients and small and medium enterprises. In the second quarter of this year, 15% of the bank’s shares were acquired by Japan’s Aozora Bank.
Ripple and OCB will disrupt financial services
Nguyen said the cooperation has materialized after 10 months of work in which multiple “resources were mobilized” and uses cases were explored on an enterprise level. In that regard, the Head of Fintech of the OCB said the following:
I would like to announce that OCB officially joined RippleNet as a strategic partner. With this investment to blockchain technology which is powered by Ripple, we target to apply new technology to business in order to cut down expense, boost productivity and bring transparency and the best service to customer with Remittance & Cross-border payment – competitive fee, instant-payment.
In addition, Nguyen thanked the Ripple Singapore team for “their dedication and commitment”. The cooperation aims to offer more services and improve those already offered by the banking institution to its consumers in Vietnam. The head of Fintech agreed to provide further details soon on how the cooperation will enable them to “disrupt” banking, financial, and insurance services.
The XRP community has welcomed the partnershipt between Ripple and the banking institution. One user stated that this is another milestone in the increased adoption of Ripple solutions. Another user provided context on the importance of the cooperation and its implications for Ripple:
(OCB) it is a joint venture between Vietnamese gov’t and BNP Paribas. Vietnamese gov’t/banking industry has deep ties to Chinese gov’t. This is big- it represents one more puzzle piece falling into place.
Therefore, it is possible to speculate about a possible further adoption of Ripple in Asia. The OCB joins TB Bank as one of the company’s most important partners in Vietnam. Upon receiving the “CX Impact” award at the Ripple Swell Conference, representatives from TB bank stated that the institution is “eager to innovate”.
As reported by CNF, since July there are rumors that Ripple could open a payment corridor for Vietnam. Speculation began after Ripple’s partner, SBI Remit, announced a collaboration with Bank Michinoku. The aim of this cooperation is to facilitate the sending of remittances to Japan.