Jeonbuk Bank, a regional South Korean bank, has ditched the SWIFT network and adopted Ripple Payments for increasing efficiency, according to an Aug. 18 announcement.
The San Francisco-headquartered firm has now secured its third Korean partnership this year.
XRP not mentioned
Ripple Payments combines a network of payout partners and payment rails with blockchain. It can operate 24/7 and provide liquidity outside normal banking hours. Its current Asia-Pacific infrastructure supports KRW payouts.
Ripple integrated RLUSD, the highly regulated stablecoin, into Ripple Payments in 2025.
However, Jeonbuk Bank's announcement does not say that XRP itself will be used to settle Jeonbuk’s transactions.
The Ripple-affiliated cryptocurrency is actually down 1.1% over the past 24 hours despite the announcement, CoinGecko data shows.
Ripple's Asian strategy
Earlier in 2026, Ripple partnered with Kbank, Korea’s first internet-only bank. The deal made it possible for Kbank to deploy digital-asset wallet infrastructure through Ripple Custody.
That was followed by Ripple’s partnership with Kyobo Life Insurance in April. The companies have been testing blockchain-based infrastructure to reduce settlement times.
Ripple also partnered with South Korean institutional custody firm BDACS in 2025. BDACS said it would use Ripple Custody to provide institutional custody infrastructure for RLUSD as well as XRP.
Ripple has been building a broader Asia-Pacific footprint. In 2025, it committed more than $5 million in additional University Blockchain Research Initiative funding across APAC. In June 2026, Ripple and SBI Holdings launched RLUSD in Japan after receiving approval from the Japan Financial Services Agency.
Dan Burgin
U.Today Editorial Team
