ambcrypto.com
In a major setback to the Ripple-XRP ecosystem, Japan’s Resona Bank announced that they would be discontinuing cooperation with Money Tap, an xCurrent-powered payment service by Ripple which facilitates faster and seamless payments in Japan. According to an official statement released by the bank, their collaboration would come to an end on May 13, 2019.
Though more details on the development are yet to emerge, reports suggest that no other bank will be ceasing their collaboration with Money Tap, as of now. Resona Bank, a subsidiary of Resona Holdings Inc., had tied up with Ripple’s xCurrent-powered Money Tap in October 2018 and was among 13 banks that had signed up for the service.
According to sources, the official statement from Resona Bank read,
“About the cooperation cancellation with the remittance application “Money Tap” Cooperation cancellation date: May 13, 2019 (Mon) Thank you very much for using Resona Bank. Resona Bank will cancel the cooperation with the money transfer application “Money Tap” which started on October 4, 2018 on May 13, 2019. We will continue to improve our service further in the future, so we ask for your understanding.”
Though the bank is yet to give a specific reason for the cancellation of Money Tap services, many crypto-enthusiasts speculate that the launch of Resona Wallet App is the reason.
The Resona Wallet App, announced in February 2019, has similar functionalities as that of Money Tap. Furthermore, it is speculated that the wallet would be launched in an app format, similar to Money Tap.
Money Tap also received support from Japan’s Banking Consortium and was deemed instrumental in improving the island country’s payments ecosystem. Following the launch of Money Tap, the CEO of SBI Ripple Asia, Takashi Okita, stated,
“Together with the trust, reliability, and reach of the bank consortium, we can remove friction from payments and create a faster, safer, and more efficient domestic payments experience for our customers.”