Ripple (XRP) has recorded another major signing, with Moneynetint, a United Kingdom-based e-money outfit announcing on Tuesday that it has teamed up with Ripple to use the company’s Blockchain -based instant Payments rails.
Moneynetint is a provider of foreign exchange services, specifically, cross-border money transfers and currency exchange services. Recently, it has been increasing the number of partnerships with fintech firms to provide these services to corporate clients across the globe who want to make their operations more efficient.
On Tuesday, the company announced that it had completed the integration with RippleNet. In addition, Moneynetint has already received payment instructions from two other network partners. These partnership agreements will allow the firm to process payments in a decentralized manner.
“Ripple’s technology is very interesting and can revolutionize the payments industry in the near future,” said Yishay Trif, the CEO of Moneynetint, in an interview with Finance Magnates.
He explained the advantages in onboarding Ripple technology, as opposed to the company’s prior practices: “Until now, if we wanted to connect to a certain company, we needed to do it through its API. This requires adjusting our systems to fit this API. This means costs and time.”
“With Ripple, we can connect to numerous companies via one API. It’s basically a hub for multiple end users,” he added. “Connecting to banks that implemented the system is also much easier now.”
According to Trif, another factor that lowers the costs is the stable nature of the system and the (almost) lack of problems – that are common in other systems.
Beyond the costs, Trif also noted the pace of currency transfer with the new system: “The speed of data transfer is amazing. A transaction can go through in [sic] an amazing pace”.
However, as much as he is excited about the advantages of the distributed ledger technology, he is quite conservative when it comes to cryptocurrencies.
“We see DLT as a game changer for the payments technology. That’s why we wanted to be among the first to implement it. But when it comes to cryptocurrencies, we have a long way to go in terms of regulations and implementation. That’s why we don’t use cryptocurrency payments.”
Commenting on the partnership, Nadeem Ladki, director, account management at Ripple, added: "by leveraging Ripple’s blockchain technology, Moneynetint will now be able to simplify and reduce the FX conversion rates for their customers, increase the speed of settlement and offer services to new markets that would otherwise have been too difficult or too costly to reach in the past."
RippleNet is a blockchain-based cross-border payment network. The company has managed to develop services which can transfer money faster and cheaper than the legacy system SWIFT. These services have been tested by some of the biggest companies in the world, and Ripple claims that approximately 100 financial institutions in tens of countries have signed up to RippleNet already.
In September, Finance Magnates reported that the Ripple team announced that PNC Bank – a top ten lender in the United States with over $6.0 billion in deposits – had officially joined RippleNet to tap its increasingly popular blockchain solution for cross-border payments and settlement.
Will Ripple partner with SWIFT?
One rumor to gain traction recently is that Ripple is considering partnering with SWIFT itself. While this rumor is yet to be confirmed, participants expect if the rumor is true than an announcement will be made at SWIFT’s SIBOS conference in Australia later this month.