Finablr, a foreign exchange (forex) company based in the United Arab Emirates, announced this Monday that its brands, UAE Exchange and Unimoni, which originally partnered with Ripple last year, are going live with cross-border payments using the blockchain technologies of Ripple.

According to Finablr, the company is further partnering with Ripple to offer cross-border remittances to its clients in Thailand. As Finance Magnates reported, the UAE Exchange, which is one of the world’s largest remittance and forex companies, partnered with RippleNet in 2018 to send and receive cross-border payments.

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Previously, the company had also partnered with Siam Commercial Bank, one of the largest banks in Thailand, to provide services on Ripple, with the latest announcement expanding its services.

Commenting on the partnership, Promoth Manghat, the executive director and chief executive of Finablr said: “The adoption of blockchain opens up considerable potential to streamline remittances and provide a frictionless, fast and secure payments experience.”

Remittance sector is set to grow in 2019

Remittance is a sum of money sent as payment or gift. According to the World Bank, in the last year remittances flow to South Asia has increased by around 13 percent. Furthermore, Asia is also one of the major recipients of remittances from the workers in the Middle East where Finablr is based.

On the whole, the region is one of the largest contributors to the remittance sector, which means the collaboration between Finablr and Ripple could be huge. Furthermore, the sector is expected to grow in 2019, with global remittances forecast to increase by 3.5 percent.

For low and middle-income countries, future remittances are projected to climb by 4 percent to $549 billion in 2019. Global remittances that include flows to high-income countries were up about 10.3 percent in the past year, reaching $689 billion, which is also expected to grow further this year.