Tokyo-based insurance company Sompo Holdings has partnered with BitPesa to promote digitization of its international remittance service.
The news comes weeks after another Japanese player, money transfer firm SBI Remit, teamed up with the blockchain company to bring distributed ledger to transactions between Japan and African countries.
Japanese Sompo Holdings Follows SBI Remit in Partnership with Blockchain Firm BitPesa
The cross borders payments industry has gained a new life ever since blockchain technology emerged to disrupt the financial sector.
BTC Africa AC, also known as BitPesa, has made a name for itself as the firm focuses on bringing increased transparency and liquidity to the African continent with Bitcoin. The firm has rapidly grown its business of helping small and medium-sized businesses through international partnerships.
The company, headquartered in Luxembourg for its attractive fiscal policy, solves the friction associated with doing business in Africa by intermediating international remittances with Bitcoin in an effort that may result in greater trust and transactional volumes between businesses and consumers, including multinationals.
The role of international remittances to support the global economy has increased, but expensive fees and delays of legacy cross-border payments technologies has resulted in the emergence of blockchain solutions such as BitPesa.
“We believe that the two companies will be able to solve the problem of expensive commission and remittance time for international remittance by using the virtual currency whose distribution volume is expanding globally, digitizing international remittance service. We have reached a business tie-up for the company,” reports the Nikkei.
Sompo decided to partner with BitPesa to both contribute to security, safety, and health, as well as to further expand its customer base in developing countries, the insurance company said.
As part of the arrangement, Sompo Holdings will enter BitPesa’s capital as a shareholder and help the blockchain remittance service better navigate the financial sector. The Japanese firm will also be a participant in testing the technology on a number of remittances and settlements. BitPesa agreed to consider developing a blockchain application for the insurance field.
BitPesa now counts with two Japanese financial services companies to expand its international remittance service using digital currency. The two agreements, with SBI Remit and Sompo Holdings should help consumers move money between Japan and African countries without middlemen or banks as BitPesa greatly simplifies the process by using the Bitcoin blockchain to create new currency pairs.
The deal made with SBI Remit will target cross-border payments for businesses in a number of fields, including cosmetics, electronics, and car retailers. BitPesa enables direct currency pairs between Japanese yen and the fiat currencies of Ghana, Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Related Reading: SBI Remit is Using the Blockchain to Make Money Transfers Between Japan and Africa
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