MoneyGram making efforts to leverage Ripple’s XRP for cross-border payments

Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s CEO, says that MoneyGram is making efforts to increase the use of XRP for cross-border payments. At Fintech Week 2019, Garlinghouse said in an interview that MoneyGram’s CEO W. Alexander Holmes is interested in boosting the use of XRP. Alexander Holmes wants to know how quickly Ripple can expand its XRP-powered payment solution called On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) to new corridors. Garlinghouse said: 

I got a call from the CEO of MoneyGram two weeks ago. And he’s upset with us because we’re not moving fast enough. That was an unbelievable [call]. He wants us to launch On-Demand Liquidity, formerly known as xRapid, in more markets more quickly because they’re having such a good experience with Mexico that they’re like, ‘Look, we want to spread this more quickly, more aggressively.

Presently, ODL is up and functioning in two destination corridors – Mexico and the Philippines. Ripple is already giving signs that it is looking to release the product to Argentina, Brazil and several Asia-Pacific countries. But according to Garlinghouse, the company will only launch new corridors once they’re sure regulators and market makers are backing the idea:

We’re not going to launch new markets until we’ve engaged regulators in those markets, we know that the exchanges on the other end are robust and compliant, and all the things that go with that.

Earlier this month, Ripple changed the name of its XRP-based payment product from xRapid to On-Demand Liquidity. As per the company, the change is part of an overall strategy to focus on Ripple’s presence as a payment network. Ripple partnered with MoneyGram back in July. Ripple also bought $30 million worth of shares in the company as part of the deal. It will buy another $20 million over the next two years.