Ripple lands Jeonbuk Bank deal as prime brokerage raises $275M

Ripple deepened its push into Korean institutional finance on Aug. 18, signing Jeonbuk Bank as the first regional lender to deploy Ripple Payments for cross-border remittances, while its prime brokerage arm raised $275 million.

"This partnership with Jeonbuk Bank reflects the growing momentum we are seeing across Korea's institutional financial sector," Fiona Murray, managing director for Asia Pacific at Ripple, said.

Jeonbuk Bank will use Ripple Payments to settle cross-border transactions in seconds to minutes, operating 24/7, replacing traditional SWIFT transfers that route through multiple intermediary banks and take days to complete. The service targets business clients including import-export companies, IT startups, and online content creators. Ripple's payment infrastructure supports Korean won transfers of up to $2 million per transaction for business-to-business use cases, according to Ripple's payment documentation.

The deal marks Ripple's third Korean institutional partnership this year, following Kyobo Life Insurance's exploration of on-chain government bond settlement and Kbank's deployment of institutional wallet infrastructure through Ripple Custody. The $275 million prime brokerage raise adds capital as Ripple expands its payments, custody, and treasury offerings across one of Asia's most active digital asset markets.

Park Choon-won, president of JB Jeonbuk Bank, framed the partnership as a strategic shift. "With this partnership with Ripple, JB Jeonbuk Bank is ready to move beyond its role as a regional bank and emerge as a digital finance leader that meets global standards," he said.

Ripple's Korean footprint spans three institutions

The Jeonbuk Bank agreement follows Ripple's April partnerships with Kyobo Life Insurance, Korea's largest life insurer, which is exploring on-chain settlement of government bonds, and Kbank, the country's first internet-only bank, which is deploying institutional wallet-as-a-service infrastructure through Ripple Custody. Each institution came to Ripple with a different need — payments, custody, or settlement — reflecting Ripple's approach of offering an integrated platform across the digital asset lifecycle.

Regional banks play a central role in financing Korea's real economy, and Jeonbuk Bank's adoption of Ripple Payments extends near real-time settlement directly to the businesses it serves. The bank's corporate clients — from import-export firms to IT startups and online content creators — have historically relied on transfers that could take days to clear through the SWIFT network.

Ripple's stablecoin RLUSD and the cryptocurrency XRP underpin its payment and settlement solutions. XRP traded at $0.9965 as of Aug. 18, according to CryptoRank data, while RLUSD held its $1 peg at $1.00002.

The $275 million raise for Ripple's prime brokerage operation shows investor confidence in the company's institutional infrastructure business. Financial terms of the Jeonbuk Bank partnership, including launch date and fee structure, have not yet been disclosed.

This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute investment advice.