Ripple’s CEO words coming true: First banks are starting to use xRapid and XRP for international transfers
In the last days of December a news broke out about Kuwait national bank planning to use Ripple’s xRapid (a solution that uses XRP token for payments) for international transfers.
Only couple of hours ago, another Kuwait financial institution is doing the same.
Kuwait Finance House (KFH) is considered a pioneer in the banking phenomenon known as Islamic Finance or Shari’a Compliant Banking. KFH is the first Islamic bank established in 1977 in the State of Kuwait and today it’s one of the foremost Islamic financial institutions in the world.
KFH (Kuwait Finance House) confirmed today the start of their zero fee service based on Ripple network, with first banks being served in Saudi Arabia.
“KFH has started operating an instant cross-border remittance service using Ripple’s blockchain technology. The zero fees “Instant International Transfer” service is available now in Saudi Riyal SAR where customers can make remittance transactions to beneficiaries at Al Rajhi Bank “
They further added:
Remittances are a huge business, particularly in the Middle East and generally in Asia. One major downside incumbent remittance solutions have, however, is the high transaction cost and slow speed of micro-payment transfers. Kuwait’s banks seem to have found the answer, and it has come from Ripple.
Ripple made numerous big partnerships with major banks and financial institutions around the globe, like Israel’s GMT, Turkey’s Akbank, MoneyGram, AmericanExpress, CIBC, Earthport, and many others who have started testing Ripple’s blockchain technology for cross-border payments.
Akbank announced that it was using Ripple’s blockchain technology [Ripple Net] to transfer the GBP to U.K.’s Santander, another financial services company. This announcement doesn’t clarify that it is not using XRP as bridge currency, but it doesn’t mention that it isn’t either.
Moreover, Brad Garlinghouse, the CEO of Ripple, words seem to be coming true as he has promised that banks will start using Ripple’s ‘xRapid’ in the near future.
