Quick answer: SBI Remit (Japan) and Siam Commercial Bank (Thailand) used RippleNet, Ripple’s enterprise blockchain network, to build a real-time remittance corridor between the two countries. Launched in 2017, it let senders in Japan move money to a Thai bank account in seconds rather than the up to two business days that traditional rails took. This is a cross-border payments story about settlement speed and cost, not a token trade.
Part of our guide: XRP Explained.
Updated 07/17/2026. By Jake Claver. Educational content, not investment advice.
Cross-border remittances are one of the clearest places to see whether new payment technology actually helps people. The sums are small, the fees are large in percentage terms, and the recipients often depend on the money. The SBI Remit and Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) corridor is a concrete example of a bank and a remittance firm putting a blockchain-based network into production for exactly this use case.
A note on framing: the original version of this post described the corridor as “stablecoins doing settlement work.” That label was wrong. The SBI Remit and SCB deployments run on RippleNet, Ripple’s enterprise payments network, and are about messaging and settlement between banks, not stablecoin issuance. This version corrects that and sticks to what the primary sources support.
What SBI Remit and SCB actually built
According to Ripple’s SBI Remit case study, SBI Remit and SCB both run on Ripple’s enterprise blockchain solution to power remittances along the Japan-to-Thailand corridor. A customer in Japan can send money, in some cases straight from an ATM, and have it credited to a recipient’s SCB savings account in Thailand within seconds. The case study reports settlement in roughly three seconds and a rollout that took about three months, with cumulative monthly payment volume exceeding 10 billion JPY and most customers being foreign nationals living in Japan.
SCB’s side of the story, in its own case study, is broader. SCB connected to more than 300 banking partners through RippleNet, processed over half a million transactions in 2020 (a 335% year-over-year increase), and folded instant cross-border payments into its SCB Easy app. Those are production numbers, not pilot figures.
The problem it was solving
The corridor targeted a real pain point. Before the RippleNet launch, a transfer between the two countries could take up to two business days, fees ran high, and senders had little visibility into when funds would actually arrive. Contemporary reporting on the 2017 launch, including PYMNTS coverage, framed it as a first for the corridor, aimed at the tens of thousands of Thai nationals living and working in Japan who send money home.
Why remittance cost is the real benchmark
To judge whether any remittance product matters, you compare it against the cost of the status quo. The World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide database is the standard reference. As of Q3 2025 it put the global average cost of sending $200 at about 6.36%, still more than double the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal target of 3% by 2030 (target 10.c). You can see that target on the UN SDG 10 page. Against a global average north of 6%, any rail that settles in seconds and undercuts that fee band is doing something useful. The corridor’s value is best measured in basis points and hours saved, not headlines.
How it fits the broader push on cross-border payments
The SBI-SCB corridor is one instance of a much larger effort by standard-setters to make cross-border payments faster and cheaper. The Financial Stability Board runs a cross-border payments roadmap with explicit cost and speed targets, and the Bank for International Settlements is building Project Nexus to interlink national instant-payment systems (its members include Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand). Private networks like RippleNet and public-sector interlinking projects are approaching the same problem from different directions.
A word on XRP versus the network
It is worth separating two things that often get blurred. RippleNet is the enterprise network banks connect to for messaging and settlement. XRP is a separate digital asset with its own ledger, documented at xrpl.org. A bank can use RippleNet’s messaging without using XRP for liquidity, and the SBI-SCB case studies describe the network deployment rather than making claims about token settlement. Keeping the technology story separate from any view on the XRP token is the honest way to read this. Nothing here is a prediction or recommendation about XRP or any other asset.
Why this matters
The practical takeaway is that this is a live production corridor, not a demo, and it maps onto a measurable public-interest goal: cheaper, faster remittances. When you evaluate any “blockchain for payments” claim, the questions to ask are the ones this case answers: Is it in production? What corridor? How fast does it settle, and how does the all-in cost compare to the World Bank benchmark? Those are checkable. Price speculation is not.
Common questions
What corridor do SBI Remit and Siam Commercial Bank use RippleNet for?
Japan to Thailand. SBI Remit customers in Japan can send money to a recipient’s Siam Commercial Bank account in Thailand, with settlement in seconds rather than the up to two business days traditional rails took.
Is this a stablecoin project?
No. The corridor runs on RippleNet, Ripple’s enterprise blockchain network for bank messaging and settlement. It is not a stablecoin issuance. The earlier “stablecoin” description of this corridor was inaccurate and has been corrected.
Does using RippleNet mean the banks use XRP?
Not necessarily. RippleNet is the network banks connect to; XRP is a separate digital asset with its own ledger. The case studies describe the network deployment and do not establish XRP-based settlement in this corridor.
How expensive are remittances globally?
The World Bank’s Remittance Prices Worldwide put the global average cost of sending $200 at about 6.36% in Q3 2025, still more than double the UN Sustainable Development Goal target of 3% by 2030.
When did the SBI Remit and SCB corridor launch?
It launched in 2017 as a first for the Japan-Thailand corridor, and SCB later scaled RippleNet usage across more than 300 partner banks, processing over half a million transactions in 2020.
This content is educational only. It is not tax, legal, or investment advice. Check primary sources and speak with a qualified professional before making financial decisions.
