RippleNet is focusing on low value, high frequency transactions with On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) to address the growing demand in remittance and SME payments.
An article written by Asheesh Birla, senior vice president (SVP) of product at Ripple, published on Ripple’s official website on Monday, June 8th, explains how Ripple is evolving with the shifting global tide.
According to him, the recent crises highlights the alleviated need for the “digitization of cash, access, speed and reliability—especially for those sending money home to loved ones.” The pandemic has led the payment industry to face a growing demand for individual, low-value transactions.
Ripple is on course to meet this demand. Asheesh wrote:
“In particular, we are reducing emphasis on large treasury payments—which are traditionally used to fund businesses and services in the absence of real-time transfers—to support individual, low-value transactions, addressing the growing need in remittances and SME payments.”
The support to low-value transaction may result in reduced overall ODL transaction volume but according to SVP of product, Ripple believes that in this way, “businesses will support even more transactions than ever before on RippleNet, and new additional connections on the network will take shape.”
Ripple’s global payment network RippleNet uses On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) services that removes the need of holding pre-funded accounts in destination currencies. In the current international payment landscape, businesses requires to hold pre-funded account on the receiver side of the payment that, according to Asheesh, is “costly endeavour that ties up assets and exposes companies to currency risk.”
This pre-funded infrastructure becomes even more costly in the time global crises when currencies becomes exposed to more volatility as in the early months of COVID-19 outbreak, the MXN peso devalued at more than 20% against the USD. Days-long settlement time is another hurdle to the efficiency of this system.
RippleNet’s ODL service provides an alternative to pre-funding by using XRP as liquidity source. XRP can be sent directly, instantly, cost effectively, and without the need of any intermediaries, resulting in lower costs associated with sending cash payments.
Now, as reported, many leading businesses such as Australian largest cryptocurrency exchange BTC Markets, Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank (SCB), MoneyGram, Malaysian cross-border payment company MoneyMatch, and European money transfer business Azimo are using RippleNet ODL service and they see the “benefits of ODL as critical to their business—both maintaining and growing market share.”
Asheesh Birla also noted that Ripple was going to open new corridors this year and onboard new customers. Ripple is also working with existing partners to ramp up ODL volume in important corridors including USD-MXN, USD-PHP, AUD-USD and PHP, and from EUR-USD.
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