Jeonbuk Bank, a regional South Korean lender headquartered in Jeonju and the flagship bank of JB Financial Group, has dropped the SWIFT network in favor of Ripple Payments to increase efficiency, according to an announcement made on August 18.

The decision carries weight beyond a single bank: SWIFT, the Belgium-based messaging network founded in 1973, connects more than 11,000 banks and financial institutions across over 200 countries and has long served as the backbone of cross-border payments, where transfers routed through chains of correspondent banks can take days to settle.

The deal marks the third Korean partnership secured this year by Ripple, the San Francisco-headquartered company behind the payment network. Ripple Payments is the successor to the network formerly branded RippleNet, which the company rebranded in 2024 as it consolidated its cross-border payment products.

$XRP not mentioned

Ripple Payments combines a network of payout partners and payment rails with blockchain technology. The service can operate 24/7 and provide liquidity outside normal banking hours, and its current Asia-Pacific infrastructure supports payouts in Korean won (KRW).

In 2025, Ripple integrated $RLUSD, its highly regulated stablecoin, into Ripple Payments. $RLUSD is a US dollar-backed stablecoin that launched in December 2024 with approval from the New York State Department of Financial Services.

Notably, Jeonbuk Bank's announcement does not state that $XRP itself will be used to settle the bank's transactions. Data from CoinGecko shows the Ripple-affiliated cryptocurrency was down 1.1% over the past 24 hours despite the news.

Ripple's Asian strategy

The agreement is Ripple's latest Korean partnership. Earlier in 2026, the company partnered with Kbank, Korea's first internet-only bank, enabling the lender to deploy digital-asset wallet infrastructure through Ripple Custody.

In April, Ripple followed with a partnership with Kyobo Life Insurance, under which the companies have been testing blockchain-based infrastructure to reduce settlement times.

Ripple also partnered with South Korean institutional custody firm BDACS in 2025. BDACS said it would use Ripple Custody to provide institutional custody infrastructure for both $RLUSD and $XRP.

Beyond Korea, Ripple has been building a broader Asia-Pacific footprint. In 2025, it committed more than $5 million in additional University Blockchain Research Initiative funding across APAC. In June 2026, Ripple and SBI Holdings launched $RLUSD in Japan after receiving approval from the Japan Financial Services Agency.

The Jeonbuk agreement extends Ripple's Korean footprint from custody and infrastructure testing into its core payments product. The announcement leaves open which assets will actually settle the bank's transactions, and whether other regional Korean lenders follow suit remains to be seen following the broader rollout of $RLUSD across Asia-Pacific.

Source: u.today