Ripple, a provider of enterprise blockchain solutions for payments, announced it has formed a new strategic partnership with money transfer service, MoneyGram. Ripple has also taken a $50 million stake in MoneyGram in a push to deploy XRP. Ripple reported that through the new collaboration, which will have an initial term of two years, it will become MoneyGram’s “key partner” for cross-border payment and foreign exchange settlement using digital assets. Ripple also revealed:
“The partnership with Ripple will focus on the xRapid product, a solution for on-demand liquidity, which reduces reliance on pre-funding by enabling money to be sent from one currency and instantly settled in the destination currency. It leverages XRP, the native digital asset of the XRP Ledger, as a real-time bridge between the sending and receiving currencies.”
While sharing more details about the partnership, Alex Holmes, MoneyGram Chairman and CEO, stated:
“As the payments industry evolves and matures, it’s imperative that we continue to improve our platform and provide the most effective solution to get funds from point A to point B. Through Ripple’s xRapid product, we will have the ability to instantly settle funds from US dollars to destination currencies on a 24/7 basis, which has the potential to revolutionize our operations and dramatically streamline our global liquidity management.”
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple, went on to add:
“This strategic partnership will enable MoneyGram to greatly improve its operations and enable millions of people around the world to benefit from its improved efficiency. This is a huge milestone in helping to transform cross-border payments and I look forward to a long-term, very strategic partnership between our companies.”
MoneyGram currently operates globally in the $600 billion global remittance market, serving millions of customers in more than 200 countries and territories, supporting multiple currencies.