- Ripple and South Korea’s Jeonbuk Bank announced their partnership, which unlocks a strategic milestone for both institutions.
- The move enables Jeonbuk Bank to leverage blockchain-powered solutions to streamline its cross-border payments as it aims to transform into an emerging leader in digital finance.
- On the other hand, it reinforces Ripple’s momentum in the Asia-Pacific region.
Jeonbuk Bank, South Korea’s first regional bank, has partnered with Ripple to integrate blockchain-powered solutions into its cross-border payment rails. The move effectively bypasses the traditional SWIFT network to enable faster, cheaper, and streamlined transactions.
Ripple and Jeonbuk Bank Partnership
Jeonbuk Bank was established in 1969 in Jeonju, South Korea. By the 1970s, it underwent expansion, opening its first branch in the country’s capital, Seoul.
The partnership combines the bank’s more than half a century of experience in the financial industry with Ripple’s pioneering blockchain-powered solutions. By moving its cross-border payments away from SWIFT and into Ripple, the company dramatically reduces its settlement period from days to mere minutes or even seconds, achieving near-real-time transaction completion. What’s more, the model operates on a platform with all-year-round 24/7 accessibility.
Meanwhile, Jeonbuk Bank’s adoption of Ripple solutions allows it to avoid SWIFT’s hefty fees, which typically cost $20 to $50 for outgoing transactions and up to $16 for incoming transfers. The rates don’t even include the extra costs associated with intermediary fees, exchange rate fluctuations, and other additional fees. Ripple Payments slashes these substantially to a fraction of a dollar when leveraging the Ripple USD (RLUSD) stablecoin or the XRP Ledger (XRPL) infrastructure.
Citing NYSE Arca’s filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in April 2026, Jared del Re, popularly known as “Ripple Bull Winkle” on Crypto Twitter, claimed that the document highlighted a real-time $59 million RLUSD settlement on XRPL only cost $0.000188. It offers a clear example of Ripple’s institutional-grade efficiency, which far surpasses traditional systems.
A Strategic Decision for Both Parties
Fiona Murray, Managing Director of Ripple’s Asia Pacific operations, and Park Choon-won, President of JB Jeonbuk Bank, both consider the partnership a strategic milestone for their institutions. It reinforces Ripple’s expansion in the Asia-Pacific, solidifying its market penetration in South Korea following its earlier partnerships with Kyobo Life Insurance, the nation’s largest life insurer, and Kbank, the country’s first internet-only bank.
The country notably has the fourth-largest economy in the region, with a gross domestic product of $1.93 trillion, according to the International Monetary Fund (IMF). It also ranks 15th among the world’s largest economies.
At the same time, the partnership signals Jeonbuk Bank’s major transition from a regional bank to an emerging leader in digital finance, in accordance with global standards.
“As the first regional bank in Korea to deploy Ripple Payments, Jeonbuk Bank is extending near-real-time cross-border settlement directly to the businesses it serves, and this is a meaningful step for Korea’s broader financial ecosystem,” said Murray.
“This partnership will become a new growth engine for the bank, and we will lead innovation that reshapes the financial paradigm, going beyond the adoption of new technology,” added Park.
