Yoshitaka Kitao, CEO and representative director of Japanese financial giant SBI Holdings, has recently been appointed as an executive at Ripple Labs Inc, which currently partners with SBI through the joint venture SBI Ripple Asia.

According to an April 26th report by Cointelegraph Japan, the official statement from SBI says the appointment of Kitao at Ripple Labs is to “further promote blockchain and digital asset utilization at financial institutions in Japan and Asia and strive to develop financial services with high customer benefit.”

SBI and Ripple have been working together since last year, with the companies introducing an XRP-powered payments app under the name MoneyTap in October 2018. The app operates using xCurrent — a blockchain solution provided by Ripple — to offer domestic bank-to-bank transfer services.

Cointelegraph Japan also mentioned that the recent appointment of Yoshitaka Kitao is in line with Ripple’s strategy to work more closely with R3, an enterprise blockchain consortium. Kitao has previously spoken out in favor of Ripple and R3, companies that were rivals until late 2018, when a dispute between the two companies was resolved in court.

In January 2019, SBI released the firm’s nine-month financial report, which stated that R3 and Ripple with be the main drivers of the company’s strategy.

A driver of blockchain technology, SBI has launched several projects to promote investments in the cryptosphere. The firm has also launched the exchange, Vctrade, as well as other investments relating to crypto services and infrastructure.

Source: cointelegraph.com

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