Ripple ascends further into global cross-border remittance on the partnership with MoneyGram

Ripple announced the anticipated partnership with the second largest money transmission network MoneyGram on Monday, June 17. The strategic partnership will last a couple of years and will see both companies collaborate in cross-border payments. In addition to that, the foreign exchange settlements with digital assets will be part of the services Ripple and MoneyGram is going to work on.

In exchange of the collaboration, MoneyGram will get up to $50 million from Ripple in exchange of equity. MoneyGram, on the other hand, will utilize Ripple’s XRP-powered xRapid system. xRapid uses XRP in its transfer due to its speed being faster than fiat currencies and most major digital assets. Moreover, MoneyGram will be able to send money in one currency and get it in a different currency at its destination. The CEO and Chairman of MoneyGram, Alex Holmes said:

“Through Ripple’s xRapid product, we will have the ability to instantly settle funds from U.S. dollars to destination currencies on a 24/7 basis, which has the potential to revolutionize our operations and dramatically streamline our global liquidity management.”

Speaking to Bloomberg TV, the CEO of Ripple Brad Garlinghouse said that this partnership was going to transform the cross-border payment space:

“The deal is a big step for Ripple, but I think it’s even a bigger step for the overall industry. There’s been a lot of excitement around what blockchain and digital assets and crypto can mean for the industry and I think it’s the reason why players Facebook are diving in also. But we haven’t yet seen much beyond experimentation.

And at Ripple, I think we are the market leader because we have matured aggressively and we’re really solving real problems for real customers. MoneyGram is just the manifestation of that. And as the second largest global remittance company, we’re able to have a big impact with one customer and one partner in this.”