Dilip Rao, Ripple’s global head of infrastructure and innovation, says that nearly 200 financial institutions and banks have joined RippleNet. He adds that on average, after every six days the platform is adding a new customer on its network.
Expansion To The Middle East Market
Rao says that Ripple now has three banks in Saudi Arabia, two in Kuwait and one in Bahrain and Oman. Also, they have a couple in UAE and Middle East region is one of their fastest growing marketplaces. He adds that the platform will open its first office in Dubai by the end of 2018.
It’s a move that will see early adopters of the Ripple technology help blue-collar workers and also offer support to areas where traditional payment platforms like Swift cannot be of help.
He goes on to give an example of South Asia where banks have given up on using Swift. Instead, they have built their proprietary technologies that interface with these “corridors,” and this enables them to move money cheaply and quickly. It’s something that helps meet the needs of customers who are based in these high volume “corridors.”
“If you want to send this money, particularly you’re not clear about what the fees are going to be that the bank is going to charge on the other end. And therefore, what you’ll receive might be substantially less than what you sent out. And if you’re sending money for blue collar workers, this often can be a small amount of money, $200, and the fees for these kinds of small payments can be as high as 5 to 10%. So this is hurting the people who can afford it the least.”
It’s in sending these small amounts of money across borders that the Ripple technology is highly impactful according to Rao.
So, it’s something that will lay the foundation for the machine to machine transactions that can move as little as a fraction of a penny.
Basil has three years of freelance experience writing on disruptive technologies. He focuses on breaking news and education pieces; helping to spread the gospel of Blockchain. He hopes to have his own blockchain company one day; helping the world through its innovative ledger technology.
