Ripple has partnered with South Korea's Jeonbuk Bank to deploy Ripple Payments for cross-border remittances, making the lender the first regional bank in the country to adopt the service. The deal is Ripple's third South Korean partnership this year, following agreements with Kyobo Life Insurance and KBank.
Jeonbuk Bank will use Ripple Payments to settle cross-border transfers in seconds to minutes and operate around the clock, replacing the multi-day delays typical of transfers routed through the SWIFT network. The service targets business customers, including import-export companies, IT startups, and online content creators, who have historically waited days for funds to clear multiple intermediary banks.
Ripple Asia-Pacific managing director Fiona Murray said the Jeonbuk partnership reflects momentum in Korea's institutional financial sector as institutions build digital-asset capabilities and seek long-term infrastructure partners. According to The Block: "Regional banks play a vital role in the real economy". Jeonbuk Bank President Park Choon-won said the partnership would serve as a new growth engine for the bank as it builds out its digital finance ambitions. The Jeonbuk announcement does not specify whether XRP, RLUSD, or another asset will settle the remittances.
Ripple's third Korean deal this year
The Jeonbuk agreement follows two other partnerships Ripple struck in Korea in April. Kyobo Life Insurance, identified by Ripple as Korea's largest life insurer, worked with Ripple to explore tokenized government bond settlement using Ripple Custody. Separately, KBank, South Korea's first internet-only bank serving 15 million users, is running a second-phase proof of concept with Ripple's Palisade wallet to test on-chain remittances to the United Arab Emirates and Thailand. That KBank pilot currently relies on stablecoin-based settlement rather than XRP as a bridge asset.
Korean crypto activity has cooled
Ripple's Korean expansion comes as local exchange activity slows. Upbit and Bithumb both posted revenue declines of nearly 50% in the first half of 2026. XRP itself traded at $1.00, down 0.7% over the 24 hours to 2:10 a.m. ET Tuesday.
South Korea is also finalizing its Digital Asset Basic Act, a framework expected to classify stablecoins as payment instruments and add requirements for cross-border digital-asset activity, a backdrop against which Ripple has been building custody, payments, and wallet partnerships across the country's banking sector.
Sources: The Block, CryptoPotato, 99Bitcoins
Trading involves risk.
Risk Disclaimer
