Ripple's Cross-Border Payments Launch in 40 Countries Across Six Continents

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Ripple says its cross-border payments technology is now up and running in 40 countries across six continents.

Jeremy Light, the company’s vice president of European Union strategic accounts, told the International Association of Money Transfer Networks that Ripple has rolled out new payment corridors in North America, Europe, Asia, Latin America and Africa, with the latest corridor powering payments to Nigeria from Canada.

“A growing number of digital-first payment providers are entering the global remittance market. They’re serving a need from populations that banks have neglected or avoided in the past. This is a huge opportunity to capture the unbanked and underbanked, and connect them to the global economy.”

The majority of Ripple’s clients are using the company’s payment messaging system xCurrent to power payments.

But Light says he believes the company’s XRP-based solution xRapid will increasingly be adopted as companies and regulators become more comfortable with the emerging technology.

“The larger consumer tipping point is still to come. As of now, you can’t easily use cryptocurrencies to pay for goods and services, but there is a clear and growing use case for crypto as a bridge currency.

As a bridge between one fiat currency and another, it solves the liquidity issues in cross-border payments, and this will be a game-changer.”

MoneyGram is the most high-profile company using xRapid. In a recent earnings call, the company revealed that xRapid is now up an running.

The head of Ripple’s global institutional markets team, Breanne M. Madigan, says MoneyGram is already boosting the volume of XRP’s pair with the Mexican peso.

Ripple and MoneyGram partnered in July, with Ripple buying $30 million worth of shares in the company at a premium. Ripple has the option to purchase another $20 million over the next two years.