Ripple has announced the addition of Ria Money Transfer a subsidiary of Euronet Worldwide to its RippleNet blockchain payments network. Ria transfers $40 billion of money per year.
Euronet claims to be one of the largest global money transfer companies, the world’s large payment network for pre-paid mobile topup and one of the largest indepenent ATM networks in Europe. It has a market capitalisation of $7.7 billion.
In the past Ripple separated users of its xRapid and xCurrent solutions. xCurrent is the payment messaging protocol to which Ria has signed up. Whereas xRapid users additionally use the XRP cryptocurrency to transfer money, sidestepping the conventional correspondent banking network.
From the announcement, it appears that Ria does not initially plan to use XRP as the benefits were described as “end-to-end tracking, better visibility into fees, estimated delivery time and status” which are typical benefits of purely using the messaging protocol.
“At Ria we have developed the second largest Money Transfer network in the world along with a best-in-class compliance program all connected by our proprietary technology,” said Juan Bianchi, CEO of Euronet’s Money Transfer Segment.
“Ria’s integration with Ripple serves to build rails for an innovative payment infrastructure that seeks to provide easier access to potential partners, while delivering faster and cleaner payments to its users. Time is a vital currency for our customers and partners, so we always keep it at the center of our innovation efforts.”
In early January Ripple passed the milestone of 200 customers. Most recently Ripple has targeted funding startups that will help to generate demand for XRP through applications.
