The stars are aligning.  Read for yourself.  I invite your feedback.

Yesterday, news that Ripple was being tested for South Korea -> Japan money transfers distracted the world from an incredible correlation that was hidden beneath the noise.

Since 2013, the “Big Four” banks ANZ, CBA, NAB, WBC (and more*) in Australia have been collaborating on a revolutionary new payments platform to replace an old and out-dated infrastructure. This alone is impressive due to the fact that the banks really never work together because they compete against each other and shows the pressure that banking is experiencing from the competition that decentralised blockchains present.

This New Payment Platform(NPP) is characterised by a few interesting and important features.

1. Real-time bank transfers 24 hours a day, seven days a week – even if customers are using separate banks
2. Mobile phone application that allows customers to use their “PayID” such as a phone number, instead of an account number and BSB.
3. Live sometime after January 26th, 2018 (portrayed by the red space in the chart above)
4. Utilising third-party blockchain service

The reason these features are more important now than when they were first announced (October 2017) is because Japanese superpower Nikkei Inc. mentioned yesterday that they too would be launching a new payment platform that is EXACTLY like Australia’s.

Japan’s three mega-banks(and more*) are set to start testing a new peer-to-peer money transfer service that uses mobile phone numbers!

This money transfer service is characterised by a few interesting and important features.

However, when Japan’s new money transfer service will be “live” is unknown as it has only been mentioned that it will be “tested” in January. For this reason, the black space on the chart covers all of January.

Another interesting mention by the Nikkei publication was that “Mobile money transfers are widely used in a spattering of African countries, such as Kenya and Tanzania, where consumers have leapfrogged traditional bank services to move directly to mobile phone payments.” This statement is strange for readers everywhere who have not yet made this connection. This is distinctively similar to Mojaloop, a campaign started and funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation that announced partnership with Ripple during the Swell by Ripple conference in October.

After extensive research, Ripple’s technology is the most suitable candidate to fit the criteria of both payments platforms. This article only identifies events that are similar and does not represent the technical framework of both payment platforms that are perfectly compatible with the Rippled API .

I have also added a yellow space on the chart after January 24 that represents when Ripple is expected to release the 4th quarter report that will confirm this research.

References:
Australia Payments Platform
http://www.smh.com.au/business/banking-and-finance/realtime-payments-to-be-launched-after-australia-day-20171002-gysjby.html
Japan Payment Platform
https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Companies/Japan-megabanks-to-allow-24-hour-mobile-money-transfer
Ripple and Australia’s New Payment Platform
https://ripple.com/insights/australia-embraces-faster-smarter-payments/
MOJALOOP
http://mojaloop.io/

Ripple as Candidate for United States Payment Platform
Federal Reserve Criteria Report 1 (includes Ripple mention)
http://bit.ly/2uOornz
Federal Reserve Criteria Report 2 (includes Ripple mention)
http://bit.ly/2uQtcS0
Ripple Federal Reserve Proposal
http://bit.ly/2C7Ojid