The Japan Bank Consortium has launched the Ripple-powered payments MoneyTap app. This was co-developed by Ripple and Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings.

In a tweet last month, Takashi Okita, CEO of SBI Ripple Asia, shared a web page with details on the offering. Earlier this year, SBI Ripple Asia, a joint venture between SBI and Ripple, announced that it was heading up the Japan Bank Consortium. This is comprised of 61 banks covering more than 80% of all banking assets in Japan and together they are releasing MoneyTap, allowing customers to settle transactions instantly, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

MoneyTap is pitched as the first mobile app of its kind to be developed and used by multiple, different banks in the country. Three members of the aforementioned consortium, SBI Net Sumishin Bank, Suruga Bank and Resona Bank, will be the first to go live. This will be followed by a staggered roll-out to the rest of the consortium.

“We are proud to leverage Ripple’s blockchain technology MoneyTap to improve the payments infrastructure in Japan,” said Okita. “Together with the trust, reliability and reach of the bank consortium, we can remove friction from payments and create a faster, safer, and more efficient domestic payments experience for our customers.”