# Settling Cross-Border Payments via Distributed Ledger

> Banco Santander has commercially deployed One Pay FX, a cross-border payments service built on Ripple's distributed ledger technology, to settle international transfers on the same or next day for retail and SME customers. The solution replaces cumbersome correspondent banking paths with direct cryptographic messaging and settlement protocols. This provides end users with complete fee transparency and guaranteed delivery times for cross-border currency transactions.

**Sector:** Tertiary sector · **Industry:** Banking and financial services · **Organisation:** Banco Santander · **Maturity level:** Production

Canonical URL: https://www.sapientblock.com/en/use-cases/banco-santander-grenzueberschreitende-zahlungen-distributed-ledger-abwickeln

## Documentation status

- **Project status:** Production
- **Evidence:** Evidence medium
- **Editorial review:** pending

## Description

Banco Santander implemented a distributed ledger-based payment infrastructure with One Pay FX that drastically accelerates transfers to other currency zones. Traditional foreign transfers run through multiple intermediary banks and often take several days with unclear final fees. The technology enables customers to see exact fees and exchange rates bindingly before authorising and to complete the transaction within a very short time.

In April 2018, Banco Santander rolled out the One Pay FX service for private and business customers in core markets such as Spain, the UK, Brazil and Poland. The technical basis is Ripple’s enterprise software, which allows direct cryptographic reconciliation between the booking systems of the institutions without relying on native cryptocurrencies like XRP. This architecture eliminates sequential clearing stages of the correspondent banking system, so payments usually arrive on the same day or reliably the next day at the recipient. Users also receive end-to-end transparency over the status of their foreign payment in the mobile app, similar to parcel tracking in logistics. The launch marked one of the world’s first large-scale commercial production deployments of DLT payment solutions by a globally systemically important bank.

## Benefits

- Optimised liquidity planning through predictable payment receipt at the supplier
- Reduction of transaction costs compared to conventional foreign transfers
- Transparent fee structure without hidden deductions from intermediaries
- Real-time tracking of payment status directly on the smartphone
- Reliable execution of international transfers on the same or next day
- Complete cost transparency and fixed exchange rates before payment release
- Increased fault tolerance and traceability through cryptographic data verification
- Reduced manual checking and reconciliation effort in the back office
- Lower error rates through automated pre-validation of payment data

## Challenges

- Harmonisation of existing ERP and accounting interfaces for corporate clients
- Building user trust in novel, technology-supported transfer methods
- Complex regulatory coordination across multiple national legal jurisdictions
- Need for robust failure concepts at interfaces to legacy systems
- Required training of customer support for the new settlement logic

## Technology foundation

The solution is based on Ripple's distributed ledger technology (xCurrent or RippleNet), which enables bi-directional real-time exchange of transaction data. This allows banks to mutually validate payment details before booking execution without necessarily relying on native crypto-assets like XRP.

## Sources

- [Santander launches the first blockchain-based international money transfer service](https://www.santander.com/content/dam/santander-com/en/documentos/historico-notas-de-prensa/2018/04/NP-2018-04-12-Santander%20launches%20the%20first%20blockchain-based%20international%20money%20transfer%20service%20across%20-en.pdf)
- [Santander Launches Blockchain-Based FX App](https://www.cfo.com/news/santander-launches-blockchain-based-fx-app/659160/)
- [Santander launches the first blockchain-based international money transfer service](https://financialit.net/news/blockchain/santander-launches-first-blockchain-based-international-money-transfer-service)