Blockchain startup Stellar has inked new collaborations with financial institutions to explore the company’s distributed ledger platform for international money transfers.
Reports this week said Stellar announced partnerships with companies across Europe, Asia and Africa, including India’s ICICI Bank, which will use Stellar’s infrastructure to move money both within India and across borders.
According to reports, ICICI Bank will look to launch a cross-border money solution that doesn’t charge wire fees and is also developing a mobile wallet app for universities using Stellar’s infrastructure.
The blockchain firm is also working with Tempo Money Transfer in Europe to develop a remittance solution, Flutterwave in Africa to use Stellar for M-Pesa mobile cross-border payments and Coins.ph in Southeast Asia for global remittances.
“Coins.ph, ICICI, Flutterwave and Tempo are leading the charge to make blockchain real and bringing the benefits of the software to market,” said Stellar.org CTO Jed McCaleb in a statement. “While they made the decision to integrate with Stellar because of efficiency and cost, these partnerships bring us closer to our goal of making money move as easily as email. This is the start of achieving our mission of enabling a worldwide financial network that anyone can use.”
Stellar’s McCaleb spoke with PYMNTS earlier this year to discuss the role of blockchain in banking innovation. But, as the company’s variety of collaborations shows, it’s unclear exactly how banks will use blockchain moving forward.
“I think what’s tough for [the banks] is figuring out which of these technologies is real and which works and is solid,” the executive said. “There are so many options out there; it’s hard to know and understand what they need and what actually works.”
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