While some countries are turning their face away from digital currencies, others are embracing them with open arms. We have just received news that Itau Unibanco, Brazil’s largest private sector bank will join RippleNet, powered by the Ripple protocol to initiate a means for global payments, cross-border payments, and remittances.
This is not the first time when a bank decided to adopt Ripple as a means of payment. Some major banks in areas such as South Korea and Japan are also utilizing the Ripple Liquidity Platform Network xRapid for cost-efficient payment processing.
The Ripple xCurrent network is going to be utilized by Itau Unibanco along with other organizations in Singapore, and even by Indian Banks like IndusInd. Furthermore, Beetech, a global remittance provider based in Brazil is also said to adopt xVia to connect with RippleNet and send global payments to their customers abroad.
There is also information that Beetech will be trying to create connections with China. Such opportunities were not possible or rather plausible with RippleNet - specifically due to the addition of LianLian International(a third party payment nonbank payment service set in China ) to RippleNet.
Looking at the growth in business as well as the obvious importance of Ripple in growing markets, Patrick Griffin, Ripple’s head of business department made the statement:
“The payments problem is a global problem, but its negative impact disproportionally affects emerging markets. Whether it’s a teacher in the U.S. sending money home to his family in Brazil, or a small business owner in India trying to move money to open up a second store in another country, it’s imperative that we connect the world’s financial institutions into a payments system that works for their customers, not against them.”
To help you take some statistics into consideration, RippleNet has left a significant imprint in the world of remittance service providers. In fact, over five hundred thousand transactions were processed by InstaReM(a xCurrent powered remittance provider from Singapore) which spans customers from over 60 countries, including Australia, Hong Kong, Singapore, and Canada.