Ripple, the enterprise blockchain solution for global payments, has partnered with Brazil’s Unibanco Holding SA - Latin America’s biggest bank by market value, Bloomberg reported.
India’s IndusInd Bank Ltd. and three fast-growing remittance providers - InstaReM (Singapore), Beetech (Brazil) and Zip Remit (Canada) also joined RippleNet, a service using blockchain, to facilitate payments both into and out of emerging, global markets, Ripple said.
Patrick Griffin, head of business development at Ripple, believes that blockchain solutions can provide a much more significant impact to the customers of financial institutions in emerging markets.
“The payments problem is a global problem, but its negative impact disproportionally affects emerging markets,” said Griffin.
“Whether it’s a teacher in the U.S. sending money home to his family in Brazil or a small business owner in India trying to move money to open up a second store in another country, it’s imperative that we connect the world’s financial institutions into a payments system that works for their customers, not against them,” he added.
The RippleNet messaging and settlement system now has about 100 customers - including many from developing markets seeking to lower their costs when sending money.
RippleNet doesn’t use XRP, the digital token that Ripple says would create even greater efficiencies in international transfers.