TOPEKA, KS–(Marketwired – Sep 24, 2014) – Founded in 1892, CBW Bank, a member of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC), continues its pioneering spirit as one of the first U.S. banks to use the Ripple protocol for modern, real-time payments between the U.S. and other countries globally. CBW will augment its industry-leading platform for payments with Ripple to enable secure, instant, cross-border funds transfers in any currency for consumers, credit unions, and other banks.

Historic, century-old CBW Bank has been a leader in bank innovation, continually evolving to best serve the demands of its customers. CBW Bank, in conjunction with its affiliate Yantra Financial Technologies (Yantra), has implemented a “context-aware” platform that delivers compliance out-of-the-box, including real-time transaction risk scoring, and offers an array of banking and payment applications. These applications allow customers to securely and reliably bank across the globe with 24x7x365 support for instant payments to most U.S. bank accounts. With Ripple supporting this platform, CBW Bank can drive real-time, cross-border payments through all of its many applications. CBW Bank joins Fidor Bank and other leading financial institutions around the world on the Ripple protocol.

“Today’s banks offer the equivalent of 300-year-old paper ledgers converted to an electronic form — a digital skin on an antiquated transaction process,” said Suresh Ramamurthi, chairman and CTO of CBW Bank. “Ripple addresses the structural problem of payments as IP-based settlement infrastructure that powers the exchange of any types of value. We’ll now be one of the first banks in the world to offer customers a reliable, compliant, safe and secure way to instantly send and receive money internationally. As part of our integration with Ripple, we are rolling out Yantra’s cross-border, transaction-specific compliance, risk-scoring, monitoring and risk management system.”

Ripple is an Internet protocol that enables financial institutions to securely transfer funds in any currency in real time. Banks, money transmitters and clearing houses can use Ripple as settlement technology to facilitate straight-through processing and increase access to liquidity with no reserve funding required. Ripple was created to enable the world to move value as easily as information moves today.

“There is a beautiful symmetry in having a century-old U.S. bank become one of the first to use Ripple as a thoroughly modern alternative to correspondent banking,” Chris Larsen, CEO and co-founder of Ripple Labs, the company that created Ripple. “With CBW and other banking pioneers, we are demonstrating the value in transparency and interoperability for the rest of the financial system. Together, we can make fast, easy and affordable access to the global economy a reality.”

For more information about Ripple, please visit http://www.ripple.com.

About CBW Bank

CBW Bank was founded in 1892 in Weir, KS. In 2009, it was acquired by its current management team, which includes ex-Google, ex-Yahoo and Wall Street executives. The city of Weir, founded in 1872, was a zinc mining and coal mining center.

CBW Bank has also sponsored/supported on its platform: Moven (the first NFC based prepaid card), Simple.com, mVia (mobile remittance & P2P), Globalremit.com and several other innovative applications. With rapidly evolving technologies and regulations, CBW Bank expects to continue, in conjunction with its partners, to develop and launch products and services that leverage these changes and innovations to serve its customers better.

About Ripple Labs

Ripple Labs developed the Ripple protocol, which makes transacting as easy as emailing. The San Francisco-based startup is funded by Google Ventures, Andreessen Horowitz, IDG Capital Partners, FF Angel, Lightspeed Venture Partners, The Bitcoin Opportunity Fund and Vast Ventures.

The software company’s team of 60 is comprised of deeply experienced cryptographers, security experts, distributed network developers, Silicon Valley and Wall Street veterans. They contribute code to the protocol and create tools to enable businesses of any size to easily build payment solutions and accelerate the movement of money globally. The team shepherds a movement to evolve finance so that payment systems are open, secure, constructive and globally inclusive.

Ripple Labs was named one of the 50 Smartest Companies for 2014 by MIT Technology Review.

About Ripple

Ripple is an open-source, distributed payment protocol. It enables the free and instant transfer and exchange of any type of value — including dollars, yen, euros, and even loyalty points. Businesses of any size can easily build payment solutions, such as banking or remittance apps, and accelerate the movement of money on Ripple. Ripple enables the world to move value like information moves today. For more information about Ripple, please visit http://www.ripple.com.