Ripple to power Siam Commercial Bank’s instant cross-border business payments

Siam Commercial Bank is partnering with Ripple to provide instant cross-border payments for small and medium size enterprises (SMEs).

The partnership builds on an earlier launch that took place in January where SCB deployed Ripple to power its consumer mobile banking app, SCB Easy, to facilitate instant cross-border payments. The plan is to deploy the same instant payments transfer for SMEs this year.

“The instant remittances experience creates peace of mind for our customers. We want to expand that experience to more markets, as well as to our small business and enterprise customers. Being part of RippleNet has helped us to completely enhance our customer experience, expand our business and keep SCB moving into the future,” said Arthit Sriumporn, senior vice president of commercial banking at SCB, according to a blog post.

The Ripple partnership and the SCB Easy mobile app are part of the bank’s efforts to digitally transform itself from a conservative institution that is Thailand’s oldest domestic bank to one that is driving change within the country’s banking sector. It is also an effort for SCB to catch up with Thailand’s rapidly growing mobile banking adoption.

According to the 2019 Global Digital Report, Thailand ranked first in mobile banking penetration (74%) and second in cryptocurrency ownership globally. Thailand also ranked 14th in mobile connectivity globally, with 133% mobile penetration when examining the number of mobile connections as a percentage of the country’s population. The worldwide mobile penetration average is 115%, and the U.S. average is 106%,

Separately, SCB has introduced a new loan product designed to help SMEs deal with the coronavirus crisis. SCB is offering loans of up to 20 million baht (about $612,000) per person for up to two years at a 2% interest rate, with a waiver on the 1% loan fee and any transfer done through the SCB Anywhere program. SCB is also offering a COVID-19 insurance package to help mitigate the adverse impacts of the coronavirus on small and midsize enterprises.