- SBI will be using OpenLegacy’s technology as well as investing in it, and has plans to utilise a blockchain-powered payments service using the new tools
- OpenLegacy’s tools help firms move from older systems to newer ones to improve payments services
- "OpenLegacy will enable our portfolio companies to quickly launch digital innovations, integrating, leveraging, and extending our legacy systems in a fraction of the time, all without changing the underlying systems", said an SBI spokesperson
The Japanese financial services organisation SBI Holdings has confirmed that it has invested $20m in a tech firm – and that it will use the investment to advance a strategic plan for a blockchain payments service.
SBI said it had made the investment in OpenLegacy, which is a provider of application programming interfaces (APIs) for both old and new systems
The deal is in part a traditional investment, with SBI looking to make a long-term profit off the back of the deal.
However, it is also in part a way of using OpenLegacy’s technology itself to improve its cross border payments services.
It will do this through a service called MoneyTap, which will be a blockchain-powered payments service used in Japan and around the world.
OpenLegacy has long since been in demand by investors.
Various Fortune 500 firms use it, including Liberty Mutual, Citi and BNP Paribas-Cardif.
The advantages of the OpenLegacy service include slashing the time and risk levels involved in moving from analogue to digital services.
By using OpenLegacy’s microservice-based APIs, it is possible for clients to make the move away from legacy services much easier.
According to the president and CEO of SBI Holdings, Yoshitaka Kitao, the new service will be able to be used by customers “without changing the underlying systems”.
"OpenLegacy will enable our portfolio companies to quickly launch digital innovations, integrating, leveraging, and extending our legacy systems in a fraction of the time, all without changing the underlying systems", Kitao said.
On OpenLegacy’s part, President Ron Rabinowitz claimed that the move “opens the door to Japan”.
"SBI's use cases demonstrate the range of achievements that OpenLegacy's technology makes possible", he said.
"The investment opens the door to Japan, the world's second largest mainframe market. It is an important milestone in our global expansion; we're now serving the world's top clients across the United States, Europe, LATAM and Asia”, he added.
SBI Holdings, which is based in Tokyo, works in a range of financial services sub-sectors – including banking, insurance and securities.
It also invests in a range of foreign assets, including those in spaces like biotechnology.
OpenLegacy is a premier provider of system switchover services.
It provides APIs which are designed to reduce the amount of manual switchover work required.
Blockchain-based and API-friendly services are just two examples of how the online money transfer sector is becoming easier and easier to use.
Why not check out more information about this ever-changing sector over at our magazine section?
