[ad_1]
Singapore TransferTo Money Transfer Platform is working with Stellar.org to facilitate cross-border blockchain remittances at low cost for underbanked and unbanked consumers in emerging markets.
The Stellar Development Foundation is a US non-profit organization that acts as a government agency and a primary code contributor to the Stellar network, an open source open public accounting platform that connects multiple financial systems. Patrick Collison, CEO of Stripe, is one of Stellar's advisers; Former CTO of Stripe, Greg Brockman, is a member of Stellar & # 39; s Board.
"We have supported the TransferTo team in understanding and launching the first cross-border payment tests on Stellar, but TransferTo is ultimately going to start services, execute transactions and build partnerships with other remittance companies using Stellar," he said. Lisa Nestor, director of partnerships at the Stellar Development Foundation.
a monitor that displays the price of stellar cryptocurrency against the euro through a portal for the trading of virtual currencies.
Bloomberg News
TransferTo operates a cross-border mobile payments network for emerging markets, which interconnects digital financial institutions and financial service providers, and facilitates international remittances in real time, mass payments, and payments. commerce and UPS mobile transmission times. It is regulated by the Financial Conduct Authority of the U.K. as a provider of payment services for intermediaries and from UK HM revenue and habits as a money issuer. Private TransferTo investors include Ingenico.
Nestor said he expects to see TransferTo send regular payments through the Stellar network by the fourth quarter of 2018, based on the discussions of the two organizations.
Lumens – also known as XLM – are the native assets of the stellar ledger, and a small number of lumens is needed to finance any transaction sent on the stellar blockchain network.
"In addition to the use of lumens to pay transaction fees, institutional users of the Stellar network commonly use cryptocurrency for liquidity and / or settlement of transactions," Nestor said. "This is because the use of lumens as an intermediary exchange currency … can help remittance companies eliminate pre or post-funded accounts by enabling real-time settlement."
There are some drawbacks to this approach. Blockchain is not a simple deployment, said Nestor. "Technically, the elevator may not be that high, but in strategic terms it requires coordination and commitment."
Another problem is the regulatory uncertainty surrounding the blockchain.
"However, the non-bank money transfer industry has to deal with most of the advantages of a blockchain platform like Stellar are many."
At the start of this project , TransferTo plans to use Lumens as the main currency deal, with the alternatives coming, according to TransferTo's money transfer manager, Aik-Boon Tan.
This approach "will also allow us to our on board partners who are already in the same blockchain network", he said. "But the disadvantage of blockchain is that scalability becomes more difficult with a blockchain component in the chain, so we chose Stellar, because we believe in its technological capabilities and scalability."
TransferTo's goal is represented by the markets emerging markets where the general penetration of banking services is low.
"We are both committed to promoting financial inclusion for unlisted and non-listed populations, so our partnership with Stellar has been natural," he said. "TransferTo will be open to further partnerships related to the blockchain as a natural extension of this initiative with Stellar."
In April 2018, TransferTo worked with PayPal and Safaricom, the operator of Kenya's P2P M-Pesa payment platform, to allow Kenyans to transfer money between their M-Pesa and PayPal accounts for purchases on e-commerce markets. "The M-Pesa / PayPal service has been active since April 2018, but we are unable to disclose transaction numbers," Tan said.
The partnership with PayPal and Safaricom is an example of how TransferTo offers alternative digital payment services for international e-commerce markets in emerging markets, especially in areas where the penetration of banking services is low.
In July 2018, TransferTo stated that GSV (gross sales volume) for its international money transfer business reached nearly $ 800 million in the first six months of 2018. TransferTo, which launched the transfer platform of money two years ago, saw a $ 310 million GSV in the 2017 calendar for the company. It is expected that the final GSV of 2018 for its money transfer activity exceeds $ 2 billion.
In the first quarter of 2018, TransferTo's international mobile top-up business processed 18.6 million transactions, which represents a 45% increase in revenue compared to the same period in 2017.
In first quarter of 2018, the majority of mobile recharge operations during transmission time originating in the Asia-Pacific, closely followed by the Middle East. Both these regions, in particular countries such as the United Arab Emirates and Malaysia, have become a popular choice for migrant workers. The Philippines and Indonesia were among the two largest recipients of mobile top-ups as they both have a large migrant diaspora that lives and works abroad, particularly in the two major sending regions.
In September 2018, TransferTo announced an investment in OXIO, which operates a blockchain-based mobile internet exchange that offers fast and affordable mobile Internet access worldwide. According to TransferTo, only about 30% of the over 5 billion mobile subscribers worldwide are able to stay connected to the Internet with sufficient data to meet their needs.
OXIO's mobile Internet platform leverages blockchain technologies to ensure that users are always connected and pay less for mobile data, while helping carrier networks work more efficiently.
TransferTo will leverage the OXIO exchange network to provide more cost-effective services in the digital value services portfolio and provide improved connectivity to the TransferTo conveyor network.
Following the investment, TransferTo's technology manager, Bruno Premartin, will become a technical consultant for OXIO.
