Ripple’s new partner MoneyGram is offering a closer look at how it plans to utilize Ripple’s XRP-based cross-border payment solution xRapid.
In a new interview with Cheddar, MoneyGram CEO Alexander Holmes calls XRP the “absolute right” asset to use for international remittances. In the short-term, Holmes says the company plans to use the technology on its back end to improve the speed and efficiency of its platform.
“The partnership really gives us a chance to speed this up and really gives Ripple a chance to put real-time meaningful value into the network and online and get that liquidity through the system. And I think it’s going to show that, from a platform perspective, xRapid and XRP as an asset is the absolute right one to use for settlement purposes.
And it should, I would think if done well, enable others to want to jump on board and participate as well because I think it’s a little bit of the chicken and egg. I think we have the liquidity, we don’t have the speed in the back end processes. They have the speed but not the liquidity. I think it’s a perfect marriage and I think it’s going to be a great opportunity to show the world what we can do together…
Longer-term, we think this is a really interesting way to begin to think about how we facilitate cross-border payments through crypto and maybe get the consumers more directly involved in the front end of it. But really right now, it’s really about that settlement platform. It’s about what they call their xRapid platform, which is really about how do we do more dynamic foreign currency and settlement management on a real-time basis, enabling us to really pair up those consumer transactions with the back end need for liquidity in markets.”
According to Holmes, one of the biggest advantages Ripple’s xRapid offers is the ability to move capital in real time without the need to hold large sums of cash in bank accounts around the world.
“We run our business really in two ways. We do the front-end consumer interface which really runs through a different system than all of our global settlement. And our global settlement engine is really one of the big keys to our success and it’s really about how do we get those payments where they need to be real-time. But it does involve a lot of pre-planned positioning of cash, and that is something that is obviously inefficient and in today’s day and age could be eliminated with the right kind of technology.”
MoneyGram first started working with Ripple about a year and a half ago, when it began an xRapid pilot test. Holmes says Ripple then approached the company and offered an outline of the current partnership, which was announced last week.
“Here comes Ripple with an amazing platform that has the opportunity for us to automate that, speed it up and do some really great things utilizing their technology. I think it’s great for us, it’s good for them. We have a lot of liquidity around the world, something that all crypto exchanges and platforms need in terms of facilitating those payments. And for us, we need to move money as fast as we can and this is a great way to do it.”
Ripple launched xRapid for commercial use in October of last year and has officially opened one payment route between Mexico and the Philippines. Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently hinted that the company will deploy the technology in Argentina and Brazil next.