Japan’s SBI Holdings, an investor in both R3 and Ripple, declared a new S coin platform that utilizes R3’s enterprise blockchain Corda to issue regional currencies. SBI says it commenced trialing the coins with group employees this month. The goal is a digital currency issuance platform for electronic money.

SBI also has the Money Tap platform developed utilizing Ripple technology to allow the bank to bank payments. Most Japanese bank payments can only operate during office hours, but Money Tap payments work 24/7. Additionally, Money Tap allows retail merchants to accept bank payments. The plan is for these Money Tap merchants also to receive S coins in addition to bank payments.

The Group is developing regional revitalization projects, and many of the Money Tap associates are regional. So local currencies may be published as part of this initiative. There’s plenty of competition for local coins in Japan. Mizuho Bank has its J-Coin issued with 60 banks, and Japan’s biggest bank MUFG is about to originate the MUFG coin in partnership with the Hot Pepper Gourmet restaurant booking website.

Regional digital currencies are already a characteristic in South Korea and have been utilized to distributed COVID-19 relief.  Meantime, as earlier reported, SBI has a wide range of investments in the blockchain sector, including a current investment in Nomura’s security token startup BOOSTRY. For now, SBI is particularly pushing its SBI R3 joint venture to support the Corda blockchain in Japan. Currently, SBI has involved in XRP in its dividend payments. The digital currency is associated with Ripple.

R3 and Ripple were also included in a protracted legal battle over billions of dollars of XRP because R3 secured options on a large quantity of XRP in exchange for consulting and introductions. Ripple claimed that the services were never rendered. It’s rumored that SBI alleged to help in settlement negotiations, which appeared in a significant amount of XRP being paid to R3, likely in the hundreds of millions. This is evidenced by the lack of follow on funding raised by R3, despite its high headcount.