Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse recently shared interesting insights on the industry at the Singapore Fintech Festival. In his discussion with IMF’s Deputy General Counsel Ross Leckow, he spoke about the opportunities blockchain technology as well as digital asset technology for financial institutions in ASEAN. The recent interview was summed up in an official article by Ripple which was also shared on Twitter.
According to both, the new technology will soon come to change the world of global payments. CEO talked about unique challenges and opportunities of blockchain to the ASEAN market. Garlinghouse stated that in ASEAN, “the regulatory environment for blockchain and digital asset technology is clear. Several countries have contributed to this, including Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines… This clear regulatory environment makes it easier to apply blockchain and digital asset technology to solve real-world business use cases, such as improving cross-border payments across the ASEAN region…”
While commenting on the key challenges, he mentioned that banks here tend to contract their traditional correspondent relationships. This creates more friction in payments in ASEAN. Garlinghouse also talked about the challenges of nowadays cross-border payments. “We see a high degree of pain in cross-border payments in terms of how long it takes, how much it costs and the surprising lack of transparency in each transaction. We see this in ASEAN, in particular, because the correspondent banking network has left this region behind …”
Role of Blockchain
Finally, Garlinghouse shared personal opinion on how blockchain will make a “lasting impact on the global financial sector and society”. The CEO hence stated that “the big picture we are trying to solve at a macro level is enabling an Internet of Value – a world where value moves like information does today. The introduction of the Internet in the ‘90s has driven data interoperability and catalyzed opportunity for global commerce. But value interoperability, the seamless exchange of money around the world, does not exist today…”.
He concluded by stating: “we must totally change the nature of how payments flow around the world. We must remove the friction and make the stream of value more instantaneous and reliable”.
The full overview can be found here.
