Ripple, a provider of financial settlement solutions, has announced that a number of global banks are joining forces to establish the first interbank group for global payments based on distributed financial technology.

Bank of America Merrill Lynch, Santander, UniCredit, Standard Chartered, Westpac Banking Corporation, and Royal Bank of Canada are the founding members of the organization, known as the Global Payments Steering Group (GPSG), according to a press release.

The GPSG will oversee the creation and maintenance of Ripple payment transaction rules, formalized standards for activity using Ripple, and other actions to support the implementation of Ripple payment capabilities, according to the announcement. CIBC will also join the GPSG as a new member.

"The creation of GPSG is significant because this represents the first time major banks have formulated policies to govern the transfer of money across borders using blockchain," said Donald Donahue, chairman of GPSG and former president and CEO of The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation. "I'm very excited to be a part of this group of forward-looking leaders who are building the payments network of the future today."

These leading banks are working with Ripple in an effort to drastically reduce the time and cost of settlement while enabling new types of high-volume, low-value global transactions. By coming together to form the GPSG, they are laying the foundation for a modern payments network underpinned by Ripple’s solutions and supported by rules and governance for global settlement.

"Today, people expect money to move at the speed of the internet. That's why we're working with these top banks to address the need for faster cross-border payments," said Ripple CEO and Co-Founder Chris Larsen. "The work of GPSG, a new global interbank network, will give financial institutions and their customers the ability to make new types of payments at mass scale."