IBM Blockchain Cross-Border Payments Network Adopted by Six New Banks

IBM’s cross-border payments solution, World Wire, is gaining traction. Six international banks have signed letters of intent to issue their own stablecoins on World Wire, which uses the Stellar public blockchain. IBM claims that World Wire is the first blockchain-based network that integrates payment messaging, clearing and settlement on a single network. The computer giant promises that World Wire allows regulated institutions to move value across borders, faster and cheaper than the traditional correspondent banking system. The bold claim puts World Wire in direct competition with cross-border payments leaders Swift and Ripple. The network is currently in limited production, but it has already enabled payment locations in 72 countries, with 47 currencies and 44 banking endpoints. where people can send or receive cash, said IBM. Jesse Lund, IBM’s head of blockchain for financial services explained that the project is in limited production. ‘We are starting with markets that are outside of the US’, Lund said in a promotional video for World Wire. ‘ But it won’t be long before we add the US as an operating endpoint. It will be sometime this year; we will get to it, third quarter, fourth quarter something like that.”