Japanese Financial Giant SBI Holdings Considers Paying Dividends in XRP

Japanese financial services giant SBI Holdings is considering to pay shareholder dividends in the form of XRP tokens, following the same practice by its subsidiary MorningStar.

After MorningStar started offering its shareholders dividends in XRP earlier this year, SBI CEO Yoshitaka Kitao revealed that the company is now considering to follow suit, Cointelegraph Japan reported on Dec. 5.

SBI would launch the program during the fiscal year ending in March 2020, with Kitao further stating that it is opt-in.

MorningStar’s XRP dividends grew SBI's crypto business

MorningStar Japan, an independent financial investment research firm, first revealed its plans to incorporate XRP-based dividends in August 2019. At the time, the company said that it will offer 30 XRP to its shareholders if they hold a minimum of 100 shares by Sept. 30.

The launch of XRP dividends on MorningStar resulted in a growing number of daily applications for SBI's cryptocurrency exchange, SBI VC Trade, Kitao reportedly stated.

SBI and Ripple have been major partners so far

The two firms have worked closely in the past, with SBI Holdings an active partner of Ripple via their joint venture SBI Ripple Asia, which was formed to promote XRP usage in Asian financial markets in 2016.

In a financial report released in late October 2019, SBI emphasized the increasing importance of Ripple’s technology in its remittance division SBI Remit as well as the development of Ripple’s xCurrent-based remittances.

Earlier in April, Kitao was appointed as an executive of Ripple Labs where he will “further promote blockchain and digital asset utilization at financial institutions in Japan and Asia, and strive to develop financial services with high customer benefit.”