RCBC Bank is currently awaiting regulatory approval to issue its own Philippine Peso-backed cryptocurrency on the newly announced IBM Blockchain World Wire, a real-time global payments network created for regulated financial institutions.
RCBC Bank sees this as an opportunity to enhance their payment infrastructure.
This will be the second time a company expressed interest in issuing Peso-backed cryptocurrency. However, RCBC Bank will be the first homegrown company to do so, as the other stablecoin, peg.PHP, was launched by Bitspark, a Hong Kong-based company.
Stablecoin here refers to cryptocurrencies that are pegged to the price of existing real-world assets. The trend recently has been to launch stablecoins to facilitate the often expensive and time-consuming remittance process, of which even Facebook has jumped onto in the development of their own stablecoin for WhatsApp.
IBM Blockchain World Wire, the network on which RCBC Bank should be parking their Peso-backed stablecoin, is a newly-launched inter-bank platform designed to accelerate foreign exchange, cross-border payments and remittances. The platform integrates payment messaging and clearing and settlement on a single unified network, allowing participants to dynamically choose from a variety of digital assets for settlement.
Often via traditional remittance networks, the high costs result from the money transferring through different operators, each levying their own fees. This is also why remittance takes a while to process, some would argue too long in this day and age of fintech and large-scale digitisation. IBM also claims that the network aims to spur financial inclusion by facilitating movement of money in countries that were traditionally underserved.
The World Wire network links payment locations in 72 countries and 44 banking endpoints, though it seems like many of these countries still await regulatory approval.
The network supports settlements using a US Dollar -backed stablecoin and Stellar Lumens, a project aimed at facilitating cross-border transactions ala Ripple, though it is owned by a nonprofit organisation. RCBC Bank’s Peso-backed stablecoin is among six currencies pending approval by regulators. RCBC Bank and others including Banco Bradesco, and Bank Busan have signed letters of intent to issue their own stablecoins on World Wire, which would add Euro, Indonesian Rupiah, Philippine Peso, Korean Won and Brazilian Real stablecoins onto the network.
Featured image via RCBC Bank
