Seven banks have signed on to use Ripple's distributed ledger technology for cross-border transactions, including UBS, Santander, and CIBC.

The consortium, which also includes UniCredit, ReiseBank, the National Bank of Abu Dhabi, and ATB Financial, aims to reduce the time and cost of cross-border clearance by accepting Ripple and enabling new forms of high volume, low-value worldwide payments.

Ripple allows banks to abandon the old, slow strategy of using local currency accounts with correspondent banks for transactions. Rather, funds are transformed into Ripple's native currency, XRP, and transmitted in near real-time.

These seven are all seeking to commercialize Ripple, with the majority having previously transferred actual money across the network. During the Payments Panorama conference last week, ATB Financial and ReiseBank performed a $1000 transfer.

"ATB Financial has become the first finance company in Canada to complete an international payment in a couple of seconds by utilizing blockchain technology. That transfer may have taken two to six business days if not for blockchain "ATB's chief strategy and operations officer, Curtis Stange, agrees.

Santander revealed in May that it had begun testing a Ripple-powered mobile app for employees in terms of a staff trial. The app enables cross-border transfers of £10 to £10,000 to be made at any time of day, with the cash arriving in the recipient's account the next working day. Santander hopes to develop the technology in the future.

Ripple's network currently comprises 12 of the top 50 global banks, with 10 institutions in the commercial contract phase and over 30 pilots accomplished.

"We've approached a tipping point when banking institutions are moving much beyond blockchain exploration and projects to real-world applications that are driving considerable bank-to-bank volume," says Chris Larsen, CEO of Ripple.

UniCredit Business Integrated Solutions CEO Paolo Cederle adds: "Blockchain and associated technologies represent a fundamental change from the status quo and are becoming an increasingly important source of innovation for all of us. That is why we are devoted to expanding our reach outside the lab and training environments."