Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), the oldest and one of Thailand’s largest financial institutions, has grabbed some headlines by recently announcing its launch as demand for cross-border payments in stablecoins is pleased to become a Thai bank. This advancement is a great step towards upgradation and automation of global remittance services which in turn, will help to reduce transaction fees immensely and improve the speed reach for users.
SCB’s Strategic Partnership with Lightnet
Under this initiative, SCB has employed Singapore-headquartered fintech startup Lightnet as its partner to roll out the new money transfer service. The partnership utilizes Lightnet’s leading blockchain technology (including the Stellar network, which provides instant cross-border settlements) and enables MoneyGram to integrate into existing local payment infrastructure. Leveraging the benefits of blockchain, SCB intends to enable instant and 24/7 international transfers for its customers.
Tridbodi Arunanondchai, Vice Chairman of Lightnet, said that their goal is “to be a new kind of payment hub providing low cost rapid and secure financial service”. This service is created for expatriates, migrant workers and any other foreign-unlanded people who need quick remittance. Lightnetr facilitates cross-border payments with zero banking infrastructure by connecting to SCB. With Stellar network’s transaction confirmation speed — less than three seconds, that practically means instant remittance with fiat converting into local Thai bank accounts seamlessly.
Revolutionizing Cross-Border Transactions
The advantages of the collaboration go beyond immediate payments. This is due to the integration of SCB with stablecoins, which can aid in finding a solution for one of these crucial problems in international remittances — high transaction fees. Traditional cross-border transfers have high fees mainly because of intermediary banks. This significantly reduces the number of intermediaries and leaves room for SCB to offer prices that it believes are better than those of its competitors, allowing it to lower costs as a result. So, this partnership marks a significant stride in the drive towards financial inclusion, specifically for the unbanked and underbanked Southeast Asia population.
According to Srihanath Lamsam, SCB Executive Vice President, cross-border payments were growing fast, and it seems that more advanced technology-based solutions are inevitable. The partnership with Lightnet showcases the bank’s dedication to adopting state-of-the-art technology so that clients can enjoy secure, easy and cost-effective financial services. Furthermore, SCB has committed to rolling out these services in new areas soon, which will only strengthen its hold over the digital payments industry.
The project was trialled through the Bank of Thailand’s regulatory sandbox, which allowed SCB and Lightnet to test the service within a controlled environment, ensuring compliance with regulatory standards. This strategic approach has laid the foundation for the broader rollout of stablecoin remittances across the bank’s network.
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A Broader Surge in Stablecoin Adoption
The SCB initiative coincides with a trend that has proliferated around the world, where stablecoins have become more and more attractive for cross-border payments. Stablecoins have seen growing uptake in parts of the world where traditional banking is either expensive or prone to next-to-no use, as new data by Chainalysis shows. Stablecoins now represent 43% of all crypto transactions in Sub-Saharan Africa, where they are being used heavily for remittances and trade. This same trend is playing out in countries such as Brazil, Nigeria and India, where citizens are utilising stablecoins to protect themselves against the devaluation of their national currencies.
Utilizing Stellar blockchain, Lightnet has secured $31.2m in funding from a number of high-profile investors such as UOB Venture Management and Seven Bank. This investment has enabled Lightnet “to scale up its operations and cater to the dynamic needs of blockchain-based financial services”, according to a Medium blog post from January 9th. The integration with SCB makes Lightnet capable of serving up to millions across Southeast Asia, where the payment market reaches $150 billion annually.
Future Prospects for SCB’s Stablecoin Service
SCB’s decision to adopt stablecoins is not just a tech leap but an evolution towards financial inclusiveness. This is a service which lets users send money around the world any time of day or night for nearly free. This significantly improves the fashion of transfer and will also help with faster, more transparent transactions.
This service has allowed them to become a pioneer in Thailand’s digital transformation of the financial segment. This brings the bank in on a wider trend among regional financial institutions, such as this week’s announcement from Emirex that it would support stablecoin development built around collateralized Bitcoin (BTC), blockchain technology and tokens. The WeProov solution provided by SCB is likely to quickly result in national-scale adoption of digital assets, making a significant contribution toward the realisation of Thailand’s Digital Economy.
The Final Thoughts
The launch of the stablecoin-based remittance service by Siam Commercial Bank is said to be a significant progression in Thailand’s financial sector, allowing for more recent and streamlined procedures when it comes to international payments. SCB is disrupting traditional banking practices by reducing the costs of cross-border transactions and working with Lightnet to make future processing fast and effective. If SCB succeeds in making blockchain technology mainstream, the project could lead many other banks to invest resources into exploring such solutions and ultimately changing one form of fiat currency for another around the globe when conducting everyday transactions. With traditional banking in certain regions more strained, stablecoins have come to potentially reshape global finance and SCB’s ambition for innovation.
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