Ripple has positioned itself as a key player in how banks move money across borders. Unlike cryptocurrencies built mainly for trading, Ripple was designed for real-world payments and its network. Not every bank on RippleNet uses XRP itself. Some rely only on Ripple’s messaging layer to speed up transfers, while a smaller group settles directly in XRP through Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) product.
Roughly 40% of RippleNet’s banking partners use ODL, according to industry tracking site Tokensonar’s 2026 review of RippleNet adoption, while the rest use RippleNet purely for messaging. Here are seven of the biggest banks connected to Ripple’s network and how each one is actually putting the technology to work.
1. SBI Holdings
SBI Holdings remains Ripple’s most active banking partner and the clearest example of a Ripple relationship moving from investment into daily financial products. SBI holds roughly a 9% equity stake in Ripple Labs, a relationship that dates back to 2016 through the joint venture SBI Ripple Asia.
That relationship expanded through 2026. SBI VC Trade began distributing Ripple’s dollar-backed stablecoin, RLUSD, in Japan on March 31, 2026, with Deloitte-attested reserves backing the token. SBI also issued 10 billion yen in tokenized SBI START Bonds through the BOOSTRY platform, offering XRP rewards to retail bondholders through 2029.
Separately, SBI Remit confirmed a partnership with Tottori Bank to use Ripple’s distributed ledger technology for low-value cross-border transfers within Japan. SBI CEO Yoshitaka Kitao has said Japanese banks are increasingly turning to XRP for international payments as they look for alternatives to legacy transfer systems.
2. Santander
Santander was one of the first major banks to put Ripple technology directly in front of customers through its One Pay FX app. The service runs on RippleNet’s messaging infrastructure rather than XRP itself. Santander has said publicly that XRP was not traded actively enough in enough markets to meet its liquidity needs for the app, so One Pay FX uses RippleNet for speed and transparency without settling in the token.
One Pay FX shows customers the total cost of a transfer, including fees and exchange rates, before the payment is sent, and it has processed more than $5 billion in transfers since launch. The bank has continued to expand the corridors One Pay FX covers as demand for faster cross-border transfers grows among its retail customers.
3. PNC Bank
PNC Bank was one of the earliest large U.S. banks to go live on RippleNet in August 2019, and industry trackers still list it among the publicly confirmed RippleNet users heading into 2026. PNC’s Treasury Management unit uses the network to process cross-border payments for its corporate clients.
The integration lets PNC’s commercial clients receive international payments against invoices in real time instead of waiting several days, as a traditional correspondent banking route typically does. Like Santander, PNC uses Ripple primarily for RippleNet’s messaging capability rather than settling transactions in XRP.
4. Standard Chartered
Standard Chartered ran a cross-border payment pilot on RippleNet in 2018, according to the bank’s own press release, testing the network across corridors in Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, regions where the bank does significant remittance volume.
The pilot was built around payment speed, transparency, and traceability. The bank’s release does not describe replacing correspondent banking relationships, so that broader claim should not be attached to Standard Chartered’s work with Ripple.
5. MUFG Bank
MUFG Bank, part of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, officially joined RippleNet in 2017 as Japan’s largest bank looked to cut settlement times and reduce the need for pre-funded nostro accounts. MUFG was also one of three major Japanese banks, alongside Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corporation and Mizuho, that joined the SBI Ripple Asia consortium in the network’s early years.
MUFG has continued to build on that foundation. The bank worked with Brazil’s Bradesco to launch a Ripple-powered cross-border payment service connecting Japan and Brazil, giving both institutions a faster settlement path between the two markets. The partnership focuses on RippleNet’s connectivity between institutions rather than direct XRP settlement.
6. BBVA
BBVA has worked with Ripple for years, beginning with a 2017 real-time international money transfer using Ripple’s distributed-ledger technology between Spain and Mexico. BBVA said that test settled a payment in seconds using the bank’s own infrastructure, demonstrating the potential for faster cross-border transfers.
The relationship has since broadened beyond payments. In September 2025, Ripple announced an agreement to provide Ripple Custody to BBVA in Spain, enabling the bank to offer secure, scalable custody for crypto-assets and other tokenized assets. This followed BBVA’s rollout of crypto trading and custody services for retail customers in Spain.
7. Bank of America
Bank of America has been involved with Ripple since 2016, one of the earliest major U.S. banks to join the network, and has filed dozens of patents referencing blockchain settlement technology over the years. The bank has never confirmed running internal transactions through XRP.
What is confirmed is narrower. Bank of America is a listed RippleNet member and has participated in pilot programs using the network’s messaging tools. A February 3, 2026 SEC filing also confirmed the bank holds 13,000 shares of the Volatility Shares XRP ETF, worth about $224,640, according to CoinGape’s coverage of the disclosure. We’ve covered Bank of America’s Ripple connection in more depth here if you want the full breakdown of what is confirmed versus speculated.
Why Banks Are Choosing Ripple
Banks are adopting Ripple’s network to cut settlement times, lower costs, and keep pace with demand for faster international payments. RippleNet addresses several pain points that traditional systems like SWIFT have struggled to solve.
Faster Settlement
RippleNet enables near real-time settlement of cross-border payments, cutting transfers that once took several days down to seconds in some corridors. This reduces the working-capital drag banks and their corporate clients face while waiting on international payments to clear.
Lower Transaction Costs
By cutting out several intermediary banks from the payment chain, RippleNet lowers the fees tied to each cross-border transfer. That matters most for banks processing high transaction volumes or serving corridors with thin correspondent banking coverage.
Liquidity Without Pre-Funded Accounts
Banks using Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity product can access funds as needed instead of parking capital in pre-funded nostro accounts across every currency corridor they operate in. This is the piece of Ripple’s stack that actually requires XRP, and it is the dividing line between banks using RippleNet for messaging and the smaller group settling in the token itself.
A Wider Connected Network
RippleNet gives banks a single connection point to reach many other financial institutions, instead of negotiating correspondent banking relationships one at a time. That network effect is a major reason RippleNet’s member count has grown to more than 300 institutions.
What This Means for XRP Going Forward
The gap between “bank joined RippleNet” and “bank settles in XRP” is the detail worth tracking. Most of RippleNet’s banking partners still use the network purely for messaging rather than settling in the token itself, and only a smaller group taps On-Demand Liquidity directly.
Whether that balance shifts depends heavily on regulatory clarity in the U.S., where the CLARITY Act remains under discussion in the Senate as of mid-2026, and on whether more institutions follow SBI’s lead into direct XRP products like RLUSD and tokenized bonds rather than staying on the messaging layer alone.
Frequently Asked Questions
Still have questions? These are the ones that come up most often about banks and Ripple.
Do banks actually use XRP, or just Ripple’s technology?
Most do not use XRP directly. Most banks connected to RippleNet use it only for messaging and settlement instructions, similar to how SWIFT works, without ever holding or transferring XRP. A smaller group of banks uses Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity product, which does require XRP as a bridge asset between currencies.
Why do so many “banks using Ripple” lists include banks that only ran a pilot?
Because a pilot still counts as a public partnership announcement, and many outlets do not distinguish between a completed pilot and ongoing production use. Standard Chartered’s 2018 cross-border pilot is one example worth checking against the bank’s own current statements rather than assuming it moved into full production.
What is the difference between RippleNet and On-demand Liquidity?
RippleNet is the overall network that connects banks and payment providers for messaging and settlement instructions. On-Demand Liquidity, or ODL, is a specific product built on top of RippleNet that uses XRP as a bridge currency so banks can settle cross-border payments without holding pre-funded accounts in every currency. A bank can be a RippleNet member without ever touching ODL.
Why would a bank choose messaging only instead of settling in XRP?
Regulatory uncertainty is one reason, since some banks operate in jurisdictions where the legal status of holding or transacting in XRP has not been fully settled. Liquidity depth in a bank’s specific currency corridors is another, since ODL works best where XRP trading volume supports fast conversion. Some banks also prefer to test a new settlement layer with messaging first before deciding whether the added step of using a token is worth the operational change.
Financial disclaimer: Nothing in this article is investment or financial advice. Cryptocurrency prices are volatile, and readers should do their own research or consult a licensed financial advisor before making investment decisions involving XRP or any other digital asset.
