wow,
Thomson Reuters StreetEvents•May 1, 2017
Transcript of 8473.T earnings conference call or presentation 28-Apr-17
https://finance.yahoo.com/news/edited-transcript-8473-t-earnings-160224293.html*
we would like to converge as soon as possible. So FinTech 1.0, 1.5 needs the web presence, and it basically is a system that allows the exchange of information. In FinTech 2.0, you're able to exchange value over the Internet. That's the difference. And you don't necessarily need the web any longer. And blockchain, of course, can be used on the web, and DLT, Distributed Ledger Technology, is also developing. Currently, companies like
Ripple or R3 Corda is adopting this technology. So we would like to take advantage of this technology to develop the system. And we would like to strive to complete the transition process from 1.0 to 1.5 to 2.0 within 3 years. And we would like to quickly reach the phase of FinTech 1.5 as soon as possible. Then how are we going to do it?
So let me talk about some details.
For example, in the area of Robo Advisor, we have an alliance with WealthNavi. From their point of view, I'm sure they are grateful, because this tie-up is doing very well. We have started to launch WealthNavi for SBI SECURITIES. And we currently already have 12,000 accounts as of April 26 ever since we launched this service, and customer assets have reached JPY 5.6 billion.
Furthermore, with Microsoft and Liquidity Market and FXTRADE, we are partnering to develop FX trading service utilizing AI. We are basically trying to complete a system, develop a system that is able to automatically respond to inquiries.
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And
creation of new financial businesses and improvement of operational efficiencies through the utilization of blockchain, a core technology of the FinTech 2.0 era, is another topic that I would like to talk about. For blockchain, in the Financial Services Business, we believe it can be applied in a variety of areas. Of course, we would like to make our business more efficient by reducing cost, so it's feasible in that way. But it can also be applied to making transactions more efficient,
whether it be derivatives, bonds, commodities or repurchasing, or cross-border. Blockchain can be used in a variety of fields, and we would like to do all of the fields.In SBI SECURITIES, they're also looking at the feasibility together with IBM to see what we could do to
apply blockchain to the financial market infrastructure for bond-processing operations. 
For Virtual Currencies --
SBI Virtual Currencies, this summer, we will finally be scheduling the launch.
We will do bitcoin. XRP will be handled here as well and other types of regional currencies. And also fixed rate type of currencies are what we would like to carry. For example, it might be fixed at JPY 1. And we would like to also create SBI coins, and we have all these dreams and ideas in place right now in the world. We would like to create unprecedented market through this launch.
And also for R3, there are more than 80 of the world's major financial institutions that are participating in this consortium. And whether it be Nomura, Daiwa, they are members and so are we. And we have made investments towards R3 as well. And R3 has a project, and we have decided to participate, which is Corda. We are striving to turn Corda into a global standard. And the global standard is yet to be decided. Ripple is focusing on this area. We are focusing on Ripple as well as Corda and R3. If there are other types of technology available, we would like to also look at that as well. That's how valuable it is. And currently at this point in time, the conclusion has not yet come out. However, for this consortium, there are more
than 80 financial institutions that are participating. And 
our partner, Ripple, 
has more than 75 distinguished financial institutions as members. And in Japan, a lot of initiatives are underway by using Ripple.So strengthening alliances with FinTech investee venture companies is another area I'd like to talk about. APIs, Application Programming Interfaces, and turning this open is something that will become increasingly important. Because the FSA are always telling financial institutions to be more active on this front, whether it be SBI Sumishin Net Bank, which did open up its APIs, this is something we would like to roll out to other areas as well. And considering -- we are considering API connections with about 10 technology development companies in the accounting and asset management field.
Furthermore, for a
transaction lending, information from big data, cloud accounting service company-provided information is what we will be looking at to offer accounting transactions. SBI Virtual Currencies are only offering 2 cryptos...BTC & XRP ...remember, this is different from the banks , xrp nostro, xrp bridging service use case.
GUYS .... XRP is not gonna be under 10cents for much longer....when this goes live in summer (june/july) expect around 50cents to $1 by end of this yr...
when it goes mainstream along with many other worldwide organisations joining...XRP could easily go over $5 each by 2020
tech.
