Digital Ventures – a fintech investment subsidiary of Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) announced that they have took part in a US$55 million Series B fund of US-based blockchain company Ripple. This made SCB become the first banking institution in Thailand that invest in enterprise-grade blockchain technology.

As reported on Bangkok Post, SCB aim to pilot remittance via Ripple’s platform in the hope of offering retail customers faster, cheaper, more private and secured transactions.

“Our participation makes SCB the first Thai commercial bank to move forward with remittance and other use cases with blockchain. Our due diligence was conducted by Digital Ventures, the investment and innovation arm of SCB, reaffirming our commitment to cultivating a solid fintech ecosystem for Thailand.” said by Thana Thienachariya, chairman of the executive committee of Digital Ventures

Together with Japan’s SBI Holdings, Standard Chartered and Accenture Ventures, Siam Commercial Bank became one of new investors of Ripple. Other organizations that also join the funding are Santander Innoventures, CME Group and Seagate Technology, and Venture 51.

Notably, SCB started their remittance trial using Ripple’s platform with SBI Remit Japan from June 2017. This blockchain-based application has been tested successfully in the regulatory sandbox of Bank of Thailand. This service is expected to serve $250 million remittance demand annually from Japan to Thailand.