Euro Exim Bank, a London-based bank primarily focused on providing financial services to export and import companies, will become the first bank to publicly announce that it is using the XRP cryptocurrency for cross-border payments.
Ripple announced on Tuesday that Euro Exim Bank, together with JNFX, SendFriend, Transpaygo and FTCS payment startups, would leverage XRP for cross-border transactions. In addition, Ahli Bank of Kuwait, BFC Bahrain, ConnectPay, GMT, WorldCom Finance, Olympia Trust Company, Pontual / USEND and Rendimento have joined RippleNet.
As a result, the startup now has more than 200 customers worldwide, as revealed by Tuesday.
Ripple's CEO, Brad Garlinghouse, said the company is signing two-three customers a week and saw a 350% increase in customers sending live payments last year.
"We are starting to see more customers turning upside down and leveraging XRP for on-demand liquidity," he added in a statement.
Kaushik Punjani, director of Euro Exim Bank, noted that his bank's customers have traditionally been limited by settlement of transactions quickly and economically. This problem extends to large companies and individual remitters, he said, adding:
"Working in partnership with Ripple and selected counterparts, we have designed, tested and implemented both xCurrent and xRapid in record time, and we look forward to seeing the benefits our customers will bring."
David Lighton, CEO and co-founder of the SendFriend repatriation service, similarly turned his attention to low-cost cross-border payments as the main benefit of xRapid.
"A distributed registry-based solution that leverages Ripple's XRP asset allows us to adjust transactions in real time, with lower capital requirements and lower costs, and we are proud to partner with Ripple to offer our customers the most economical faster payments to the developing world, "he told CoinDesk.
Several other companies have already started using xRapid, which uses XRP cryptocurrency, for international payments, including MercuryFX, Cuallix and Catalyst Corporate Credit Union. However, while the three companies provide financial services, no one has a banking license as Euro Exim does.
In the past, other companies, including Western Union, MoneyGram, Viamercias and IDT, have tried xRapid, although none are using the platform in full production at this time.
Ripple image through Shutterstock
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