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Russia might lose access to dollars; Can crypto help?

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Russia stands to lose its ability to access dollars as the US and its allies propose to restrict Russian banks from the SWIFT system. The unprecedented step is taken with an aim to cripple Russia’s financing efforts in the war by curtailing access to the dollar-based financial system thus rendering its Central Bank assets less useful.

There has been an outpouring of support for the Ukrainian people hoping for a quick end to the violence. Furthermore, Ukrainian officials have leveraged Twitter to seek assistance via crypto donations. Blockchain entities of all sizes have also begun sprung into action and donate to the Ukrainian cause.

That being said, crypto enthusiasts have wondered if crypto can save Russia amidst calls for strict sanctions. But by gauging from what happened in Canada two weeks back, the decentralization aspect of crypto has failed to put up a strong fight against the centralization powers of government.

Crypto may not be effective owing to Russia’s lukewarm attitude

While cryptocurrency may offer an alternative route for individuals or organizations to transact, the Russian government’s lackadaisical stance on technology and other factors may limit its use for this purpose.

Earlier this month, after the Dzhurinskiy interview, before the launch of missile strikes into Kyiv, the Finance Minister submitted a proposal to allow for Bitcoin to be a legal investment, but not a legal tender.

Andrew Jacobson an associate with law firm Seward & Kissel, told in an interview

“I think Russia probably is thinking about using bitcoin or other cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions, but on the other hand, is probably concerned about those cryptocurrencies getting too much popularity within their own country, because that impacts their own control of their own monetary system, and therefore impacts their power.”

Jacobson went on to state that even if some individuals do choose to turn to crypto, it’s unclear whether they would be able to effectively bypass sanctions using crypto assets.

Caroline Malcolm, Chainalysis’ head of international policy, revealed that the blockchain analytics firm had not yet seen any unusual activity from Russian crypto exchanges over the last few days.

According to a recent report by Wall Street Journal that cited an administration official saying that sanctions on Russia’s crypto activity would need to be crafted in a way that didn’t destroy the broader crypto market which might make the imposing difficult.

Japan Proposes “Crypto SWIFT-Network,” Will It be a Threat to SWIFT?

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Believe it or not, regulators have been too concerned about the inclusion of cryptocurrency into the financial world. Japan is reportedly hitting a new deal by planning to develop SWIFT like network for crypto payment. 

SWIFT Network for Cryptocurrency Market

According to the report, gathered from Reuters – Japan’s Govt is heading to combat the money laundering new network similar to SWIFT. But this network will be dedicated for crypto payments, a person familiar with the plan reported on July 18, 2019.

For those who don’t know, SWIFT is the oldest network used for the cross-border payment system, primarily used by banks. Since past few years, Ripple has been emerged as a private market player and as a direct threat to SWIFT by launching its various blockchain products to help banks and financial companies with money transfer around the world. In particular, Ripple with blockchain technology reduces the cost and the transaction time, which set it as the best choice over SWIFT for many global fintech players.

However, the date of launch or other development details are still out of sight. But it is quickly remarked that Govt is aiming to have this network in place in the next few years. More on this, Country’s anti-govt Financial Action Task Force (FATF) will have a team dedicated to monitoring this, including its development. Moreover, it is also stated that Japan will incorporate with other countries for the matter for SWIFT like network for crypto payment.

The report also highlights that back in June, FATF also approved the proposed plan of Japan for establishing the new network. During the FATF meeting, this network plan was introduced by the country’s Ministry of Finance and the Financial Services Agency (FSA).

Japan and Crypto

While the United State is still scrutinizing the consequences of Libra to sovereign currency, US Dollar and other money laundering issues Libra can create, Japan is already stepping ahead with something new and innovative in the crypto world.

Japan is a country that put itself in the forefront of the trending technologies – so far, the country has taken various initiatives to tighten the crypto industry and meantime, promoting the innovation. During 2017, Japan passed a law, defining Bitcoin as a legal method of payment and recognized crypto trading platforms under AML and KYC rules.

As for now, no information on this matter is public yet, and as report states, FATF has already approved this plan, Japan may announce it anytime soon. Stay tuned with Tronweekly to get this update.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

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How Ripple and XRP can transform the cross-border payments in real

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If you are among those who think that Ripple’s technology and cryptocurrency (XRP) will revolutionize the world of international payments, you’re in good company. The Euro Banking Association agrees with you as it explained in a paper called “Cryptotechnologies in international payments” authored by the Working Group on Crypto technology in International Payments.

The international payments environment

International payments are the global economy’s blood flow. They’re in high demand from both individuals and corporations. According to Deutsche Bank, this industry was worth about USD 1.2 trillion, and it was expected to double by this year. But the system for settling international payments has become something of a relic.

While the global financial system had modernized over the last decades (adopting the internet, better communication technologies, etc.) the SWIFT system, which is the standard global way of settling international transfers had remained precisely the same as it was in 1975 when it was instituted.

SWIFT is plagued by reliance on Nostro/Vostro accounts, multiple intermediaries for a single transaction, deferred settlement procedures, manual reports, and screening procedures.

The system is expensive, primitive, complicated. It can take several days for a single operation to be settled. This means that it’s costly and time consuming for banks and customers. Non-banking institutions offer a better service. That’s why MoneyGram and Western Union are giants. Yes, one of them, MoneyGram, partnered Ripple not too long ago. And, the other is almost ready to do so at full scale.

It’s been evident for years that if banks are going to compete in this vast market with the world’s remittance services, they will need to come up with an option better than SWIFT. In this context, blockchain and distributed ledger technologies are emerging as systems that can lower costs drastically, increase speed, transparency, and service to corporations and individuals alike.

Crypto technologies could be the key that opens the door for banks to compete in this ever-growing market, while still complying with international regulations in all the markets in the world.

The challenges

These are the problems that the banks need to solve if they’re going to improve international payments.

  • KYC and fraudulent checks. Complying with KYC regulations is probably the worst problem for banks today when it comes to international markets. KYC procedures are different in every country, and within every country, they also vary depending on the type of client. It’s complicated, time-consuming, and expensive for banks. And the cost, of course, is paid by the customers in the end.
  • Liquidity costs. Cross-border payments need for Nostro/Vostro accounts to be funded, and that’s another high cost faced by banks of all sizes. It’s capital that’s just laying there, uselessly, waiting for a customer to request operation in which the currency of that particular account is useful. Keeping the books on these accounts is exceedingly complicated. And once some of that capital is used to serve the customer, it has to be replaced.
  • Regulatory frameworks. Every bank must comply with its domestic laws. But it must also abide by the laws of the target country in each operation. That takes a lot of expertise from the bank, that must pass it on to each customer so that it can be understood if the transfer is legal or not in both the sending and the receiving jurisdictions.
  • Lack of transparency. You never know when a transaction will be completed. Your bank doesn’t know either, because the system is very complex, so you always get an answer like “oh, in a few days, surely.” And the money has to go through so many intermediaries, each charging a fee, which you will also pay.
  • Lack of speed. It’s slow. It can take several days, depending on the route, the amount, and the international partners each bank has.
  • Reliance on a handful of big players. A small number of big banks dominates the market. So unless your bank is one of the world’s global giants, the chances are that you’re not going to get excellent service. They dominate the correspondent banking networks.
  • Competitive pressure. There’s MoneyGram and WesternUnion. And now there’s PayPal too. These remittance services and fintech are quicker, cheaper, and safer.

Crypto to the rescue

Blockchain technology, especially the one that Ripple boasts, could revolutionize the industry for all parties involved. It will do this by solving all the problems described in the previous section. It will increase costs and transparency, eliminate almost all risks, bring the speed up drastically, reducing the friction between domestic and international payment networks.

In principle, a system like that could be built using any cryptocurrency available in the crypto-verse. Of course, more stable digital assets with high liquidity are preferable. But the one that’s been leading the way for years now is Ripple’s XRP.

Ripple

From its very inception, Ripple has worked with full focus into solving the problem of international transfer. Unlike other cryptocurrencies which seek to become retail payments systems or ways to store wealth, Ripple aims to disrupt the traditional banking system by eliminating all the friction present in settling payments through SWIFT.

And it’s succeeding so far.

Ripple currently offers several software platforms and a native cryptocurrency (XRP) that can complete an international operation in seconds instead of days, and for a cost of pennies instead of a percentage of the transfer.

xCurrent

xCurrent is one of Ripple’s platforms. It’s essentially just a messaging system. There’s not much of a surprise here because the SWIFT system itself is also a messaging system. But SWIFT is so outdated that even a basic, but modern, messaging system can improve the customer experience by a lot. Also, because it doesn’t rely on cryptocurrencies and it’s vaguely similar to Ripple, the banks are not as reluctant to try it out.

xRapid

xRapid is a lot more complicated but more promising as well. In xRapid the bank that’s sending money abroad uses its local fiat currency to go into the cryptocurrency market and buy XRP tokens. Those crypto tokens are then sent to the target which collects them in its wallet and then sells them to buy local fiat. The whole process takes seconds. Also, using XRP is not mandatory; the same procedure can be followed using some fiat currencies and other digital assets as well.

Ripple already has 200 customers in the banking and remittance industry, and a new one keeps joining the Ripple Net every week, on average. Some of the world’s larger banks, such as Banco Santander, are already using the technology at the production stage for settling payments.

Final thoughts

The SWIFT system has been hindering the world’s banks for years. They simply can’t compete with remittance services or serve their customers well. Blockchain technology and distributed ledgers will give them the chance to become fast, cheap, safe, and competitive.

Of course, the banking industry has been slow to react. Bankers are usually very conservative, and they don’t like changes of any kind. But the writing is on the wall. Even the European Bank Association knows it, as it published in the paper, so it’s just a matter of time before the change happens. On the other hand, they’re always happy to lower costs as much as possible so, in the end, this is an offer that they just can’t refuse.

And when the banks finally embrace cryptocurrencies and blockchains to make their work easier, the chances are that Ripple’s technology will be leading the way along with its cryptocurrency, XRP.

Without many significant changes in the international payments industry, the banking system will be left behind in a market that’s snowballing, and in which the more aggressive competition is already adopting blockchain networks to do the job. Ripple is on the frontline.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

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Triple threat match between Ripple, Facebook, and Swift for cross-border remittance

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Development of cryptocurrency in the digital payment category may have influenced the cross-order remittances. The number of blockchain startups and other financial institutions are seeing this as an opportunity to leverage their business shortly.

To exploit this opportunity businesses have started making use of their existing colossal user base, like Facebook while others like Ripple are partnering with fellow financial institutions like Moneygram and Coinfirm to take their game to the next level.

Understanding cross-border remittance

According to a report from the World Bank, there seems to be $529 billion in 2018, which is the remittances from the middle and low-income nations – which is more than 10 percent in 2017. Also, it is expected to reach $550 billion in next few years, which is why fintech firms and blockchain startups are considering this as an opportunity to tap into and leverage the same – calling it the lowest hanging fruit.

The mere purpose of immigration gets nullified when the remittance rates and cross-border money transaction rates are outrageous. On average, to transfer $100 using traditional means other than the emerging ones like Ripple, it costs around $7, which is expensive.

Considering Asian and African immigrants in Europe, the US, and Gulf, they would need to send the money back to their family and dependants in a definite period. These remittance rates are actually hitting the expats hard, thus avoiding the actual benefit of having an income in foreign currency.

Leveraging the lowest hanging fruit

Financial institutions like MoneyGram, Paypal, or Western Union, are really locking these transaction rates quite high, which in turn is allowing blockchain startups to find an alternative to this traditional and inefficient means of remittance. That precisely is what Ripple is trying to do; the blockchain firm has a vision of creating a dent at global than just doing roadmap of features. It seems they are here to fight between 0 or 1, to either make the impact or accept the failure.

Cryptocurrency based solutions are working to provide a cost-effective approach to this existing cross-border remittance procedure. For example, consider PayPal, it charges a flat price of 2.9 percent and $0.30 for a single online transaction.

Not too long ago, a spokesperson from World Bank mentioned something about the global state of remittance and how fintech firms can make a significant impact in the future,

“Although geography plays a huge role, the cost is the biggest challenge to financial inclusion. This is both from the perspective of the service provider, in the sense that the costs to provide financial services to the abysmal (including rural dwellers) can be prohibitive. Also, from the perspective of the user of the service (for meager-income individuals and families), the cost of using financial services can be prohibitive.”

Ripple has already been researching on these cross-border remittance procedures and its planning to do it using the decentralized ledger technology (DLT) by partnering with banks and other required financial institutions.

Though there are enough rewards when blockchain startups leverage this lowest hanging fruit, it comes with a price. Moreover, this is how the Spokesperson continued,

“Aside from the cost, we shouldn’t undervalue the role that gender discrimination plays. The result of this is a large (9% in the developing world) gender gap between men’s access to finance and women’s access.”

“While employing cross-border remittance, its good to consider Anti-Money Laundering and aiding terrorism as well” added the Spokesperson.

The battle of fintechs: Libra vs. Ripple (XRP) vs. Visa

But according to Jamie Dimon, CEO of JPMorgan Chase, cryptocurrencies can’t overtake the relevancy of banks payment procedures; he believes banks have already built P2P, Zelle, and TCH with better real-time transaction methodology.

Facebook, with its recent Libra project, is trying to leverage its social media user base, to tap into this market while Ripple is already partnering with other financial institutions to stabilize its overall financial journey. Also, Libra could violate the precedence of sovereign fiat, thus diluting the financial powers of underdeveloped and developing countries.

This battle seems to have already begun between Libra and XRP, especially after Ripple’s partnership with MoneyGram. With MoneyGram’s liquidity and Ripple’s robust operating system, XRP could be more rigid. With ordinance and compliance comes perfection, which is why Ripple has also partnered with Coinfirm, to make XRP a better option in the market.

It is worth noting that SWIFT is also in this race with plans of employing DLT based global payment innovation (GPI) platform. So it seems, SWIFT is actually planning to leverage upon Ripple’s XRP using its GPI platform when there is a cross-border transaction.

Instead of making things centralized SWIFT might make use of Ripple’s partnership with various banks and financial institutions, to use Xrapid and XRP creating multiple loops. With the obstacles in the cross-border remittances, cost-effective approach with the fastest transaction methodology, and end-to-end protection will be the leader in this business.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

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Ripple CEO criticizes the decrepit Swift technology that banks use

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When bitcoin was invented a decade ago, and later more cryptocurrencies including Ripple’s XRP appeared, their use was mainly linked with anonymous ways of selling drugs as well as weapons online through marketplaces such as Silk Road.

Later, speculation set in and now it’s all about utility. The financial industry is, by far, showing the highest readiness of adopting blockchain technology for various reasons. And on the front foot, Ripple is leading as the best option for banks.

For that reason, now there’s no room for Silk Road. Subsequently, according to the Ripple’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse, the fintech startup is overtaking old Swift network in a blink of an eye.

Blockchain Technology is the Best and Only Way

The finance industry looks to be taking a new direction to finally adopt blockchain technology as the only way to stay at the top of the game. And as that is happening, SWIFT is being overtaken slowly.

Recently, in an interview with Bloomberg, Ripple CEO seemed confident that the Fintech startup is indeed the hot cake for the financial institutions. Brad Garlinghouse said,

“What Ripple is executing every day is to take over SWIFT. Currently, we’ve signed up over 100 swift-enabled banks that are now using the Ripple technology.”

The numbers are increasing with Brad stating that they have attracted a plethora of new customers who are looking for blockchain on solving logistical issues that are posed by the older systems.

Swift is used by companies as well as individuals for sending and receiving money worldwide. On the other hand, Ripple uses its digital currency, XRP, as a proxy for those customers converting fiat currencies.

What puts Ripple ahead is the fact that it provides liquidity and Garlinghouse states that SWIFT is far behind in terms of technology. In Garlinghouse’s words,

“The technology used by the banks today that Swift developed years back hasn’t really evolved or even kept up with the current market.”

He also added that despite Swift affirming some time back that they couldn’t see blockchain as the real solution; the time is now they should start eating their words.

The cross-border payments have been a significant concern within the financial institutions for a long time, and right now, the means of improving efficiency would be welcomed. Ripple looks to be the best shot for the institutions given the increasing number of banks integrating the technology.

We’ve already heard the rumors of a possible tie-up between the two (Ripple and Swift), but it seems to be rumors anyway as Brad insists that his firm’s main objective is taking over Swift. The task at hand for Ripple of taking over Swift looked impossible some years back, but with the current developments, Brad-led blockchain company’s nose is edging ahead of Swift.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Never miss our daily cryptocurrency news, price analysis, tips, and stories. Join us on Telegram | Twitter or subscribe to our weekly Newsletter.

Ripple (XRP) now leads SWIFT in popularity, is blockchain winning?

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Blockchain technology is no longer a new vocabulary to most folks across the globe, but in case you haven’t heard about it, perhaps it’s your time now. The reason is straightforward – it’s already winning.

Let’s look at Ripple (XRP), for example. When Ripple announced itself to the world, it was ignored at mass because of its affiliation with the traditional banking industry that drove the fears of centralization.

However, like it or not, in 2019, even the IMF is bowing to Ripple as it has now taken the bragging rights regarding popularity.

Ripple XRP Expansion Getting Hard to Stop

Ripple is well known for tackling the inefficiencies that are involved in the cross-border payment industry. Thanks to its XRP token and xRapid, the crypto is targeting nothing less than conquering the international payment traffic.

The blockchain firm’s CEO Brad Garlinghouse predicted a few months back about Ripple overtaking Swift; it seems his prediction has come true sooner than many expected. Undoubtedly, nothing comes on a silver plate, so Ripple too has scored several partnerships which have elevated it high ultimately. For instance, Binance’s interest in ripple technology is a massive boost, and we all know that banks fancy it a lot.

Not Only Speed and Cost

Despite SWIFT’s firm grip since 1973 on the international money transfer, Ripple has now done it to become the most popular figure. Most would know Ripple to be the fastest option regarding the cross-border payments, adding to its low costs.

But now, the crypto is not only cost effective and faster, but it’s now the most well-known means of payment across the globe. Interestingly, SWIFT is trailing.

https://twitter.com/XrpZin/status/1133754532851326977

Even though SWIFT works with the Global Payments Innovation (GPI) to solve some of the essential problems of the finance system, it seems that it hasn’t prevented Ripple from taking over. Ripple’s xRapid is a public distributed ledger without a central processor; hence, it may not come as a surprise that Ripple is more popular than SWIFT.

Consequently, as like any other thing, the community reacted with mixed feelings. Some of the users affirmed that Ripple is more popular than SWIFT on Twitter only because of the ‘moon boys.’

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Ripple adds selling point when recruiting new customers, says MoneyNet

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MoneyNetInt offers a broad spectrum of financial products for its global clients. One of its core services is the international transfer of money at competitive costs. This service is essential for any company that operates globally. That’s why the company joined the Ripple Net. Using Ripple’s global payments platform makes MoneyNet Int’s services more efficient, secure, and competitive. It also helps the company’s customers as it facilitates new business by reducing the cost in the current ones.

Raphael Golan, the Business Development Director of MoneyNetInt, affirms,

“We support our customers by facilitating their cross-border payments,”

He added,

“Many of them are based in different regions around the globe, but trade with customers in Europe and the US. By utilizing our localized payment network of banks and partners, they are able to process cross-border transactions for a far lower commission than they would in traditional local banks in each of these regions.”

After decades of being dominated solely by the SWIFT system, we’ve seen over the last five years how the global remittance environment has become much more competitive. MoneyNetInt has managed to stay on top of things and keep its place in the market by finding innovative ways to continue providing its customers with better value for their money. That’s why as last year began, the company decided that it was time to give blockchain technology a try.

Golan resumed,

“We knew that if we could cut transaction time from a few days to less than a day, while still reducing costs,”

MoneyNetInt Business Development Director went on to add,

“It would allow clients to invest more time and money in developing their business. We saw that blockchain technology could disrupt the traditional cross-border payments industry but couldn’t find a partner who could provide a professional and reliable platform until we met the Ripple team.”

As soon as MoneyNetInt saw the advantages in Ripple’s technology (faster transfers that are reliable, more secure, and at lower costs), it became quite enthusiastic about moving quickly towards adopting it. It took only two months of development for the company to be online in the RippleNet, and it was fast to bring six more partners to the party.

Avi Strarodubsky, Head of Business Development at MoneyNetInt, recalls the experience as an extraordinary one. In his view,

“We have established a great relationship with the team at Ripple from day one. With their extensive experience in the field, they understand the pain points of applying new technology to the traditional payments world and were responsive to our requests and needs.”

Starodubsky added,

“Having a partnership with Ripple is an added selling point when recruiting new customers,”

He continued,

“Being part of the RippleNet is generating more business, and we are constantly introduced to new partners. It also opens doors for relationships with banks and financial institutions around the world, as being a RippleNet member means speaking the Ripple “language,” which essentially reduces time to market dramatically.”

So now MoneyNetint has been able to give their customers better prices, faster speeds, additional security. In short, it’s gained the edge over many competitors, and its clients are getting more bang for their international buck. It’s a crucial element in the company’s ability to stay current. And that’s all because of their partnership with Ripple. That is what they say.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Ripple and Swift representatives dialogue at European congress organized panel

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An exciting panel took place recently in a European congress. It featured three experts in state-of-the-art financial services: Douwe Lyklama from Innopay; Saska Devolder, Swift’s officer in charge of Western and Central Europe; Marjam Delatine from Ripple’s European office. They discussed the outlook for the evolution in the European financial services markets, and we will share with you the highlights.

Swift

The panel opened with the representative of Ripple‘s direct competitor’s representative (in a sense) Mrs. Devolder’s first intervention in which she explained that while the financial services of the world are changing quickly everywhere, they’re doing so more rapidly in Europe because the Eurozone’s Central Bank (ECB) is pressing the changes and it has placed deadlines that every member must meet.

ECB is pushing for the market to be more competitive so that the services offered by the system are better, cheaper, and more reliable. Also, in Europe, there is the issue of every user’s “right to be forgotten,” which also applies to banks and financial institutions.

The ECB also worked hard to develop and deploy a Pan-European payments system which went online last November. Besides increased competition, ECB’s regulatory drive is focused on bringing new services to the public and increasing liquidity. So a lot is going on at the same time, which makes the European theatre the most advanced in the world when it comes to financial modernization.

Innopay

Then it was Mr. Lyklama’s turn who explained that the user or an authorized representative must consent all access to customer’s data. He also talked about open banking systems and how they’re gaining traction everywhere in the world.

The open banking implementation in Europe is complicated because there are five different standards to choose from. That’s holding the EU back. In the UK, for instance, there was a single standard from the beginning, and that advantage alone has enabled the country to outdo Europe (and the rest of the world) when it comes to open banking systems.

Ripple

Next, it was Mrs. Delatinne turn. As expected, she talked about open banking and blockchain technology. The idea in open banking is for all payments operations to be fully digital. If that idea is going to catch in the minds of users, then they will have to trust the system. And blockchain technology is the best trust broker available.

She went on to explain that Ripple‘s priority is to facilitate interoperability among different financial networks. That’s how it can and will help the European systems to meet the ECB’s deadlines, come up with new services, and take good care of customers.

So Europe is way more advanced than the rest of the world when it comes to the adoption of new financial technologies, especially the UK. That means that many new services will start there and then, as the banks and financial institutions learn how consumers react to the new ideas, they will expand to the rest of the world. The prominent role that European banks play everywhere in the world, except for Wall Street will surely expedite that process.

New exciting things are coming to the world in terms of financial services, the actual ownership of your wealth, and freedom. It seems that they will start in Europe, and blockchain technology and crypto currencies will be at the heart of everything. And of course, Ripple might benefit the most.

Disclaimer: Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.

Visa acquires Ripple partner Earthport after clearance by UK competition watchdog

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Earthport

Earthport is now under Visa’s control, according to an announcement issued yesterday by the payments company. Earthport has a payment network that includes banks in 87 countries in the world, and it’s one of Ripple’s strategic partners. The UK company went to Visa after a bidding war that saw the new owner fight it out with Mastercard, its traditional competitor. Mastercard dropped the bid so it could acquire another company instead, Transfast.

The final tag was of GBP 247 Million (USD 321 million), which is almost five times higher than the preliminary bid. That’s rare in itself, and it signals how intense Visa’s interest was.

Ripple is not the only high profile partner the company has. Bank of America, Merril Lynch, TransferWise, BNP Paribas, and Xoom are among them. This company powered the Banco Santander’s application that runs on Ripple’s technology and allows to send money across borders in a handful of countries in Western Europe. But Visa’s primary interest is in those 87 banks that already have a working relationship with its new company.

Why the merger

Visa plans to use the network as a starting point to come up with an international payments service that can rival SWIFT. The wire transfer market is worth USD 80 trillion yearly, so it’s a massive opportunity for all those who have an option to join. The company said that,

“Currently, Visa enables payments to be sent to or from Visa cards. The acquisition will make it possible for Visa clients to enable individuals, businesses and governments to utilize Visa to send and/or receive money through bank accounts around the world.”

Other use cases highlighted by the company included payrolls, international person-to-person transfers, business-to-business payments. Visa is working on the B2B Connect blockchain to achieve that.

“Visa is modernizing the way we move money by making it quicker, safer and easier to pay and be paid than ever before,” said Bill Sheley, head of global push payments, Visa.

“The acquisition of Earthport unleashes the power of Visa by taking us ‘beyond the card,’ empowering us to enable our clients to make payments through bank accounts around the world.”

After Visa was able to win the bidding war with Mastercard, roughly a month ago, the United Kingdom’s Competition and Market Authority (CME) launched an investigation to ensure that everything was kosher with the merger. Today, CMA announced that this merger doesn’t merit an investigation.

It seems that Ripple is getting more competition all the time to take on SWIFT’s monopoly on international transfers. First, it was Stellar Lumens (along with IBM) trying to disrupt the same market. Then R3 also became part of the mix, and it seems that now Visa wants a piece of the action.

Ripple has a considerable advantage over all the other players. Stellar has IBM’s support which could end up being very important. And Visa is already doing business everywhere in the world. So the competition will be exciting to see, and it will probably show the world why there are some use cases in which you just can’t beat a blockchain.

Disclaimer: The presented information is subjected to market condition and may include the very own opinion of the author. Please do your ‘very own’ market research before making any investment in cryptocurrencies. Neither the writer nor the publication (TronWeekly.com) holds any responsibility for your financial loss.