Ripple recently announced about a new partnership with United Arab Emirates-based UAE Exchange platform. According to the announcement, passed on December 13, the partnership will aim at eventually launching cross-border remittances to Asia which will be based on blockchain. The sides plan to have the upcoming big launch by the first quarter of 2019.
UAE Exchange is reportedly a part of Finablr which is a payments and foreign exchange company. The major company is one of the main players in the Middle East region. And here, as suggested by the source, there are currently high levels of remittance inflows from expatriate workers. The source also confirmed that Asia is “one of the largest recipients of the $613 billion in remittances estimated to have been sent globally in 2017”.
CEO of Finablr, Promoth Manghat earlier shared own comments on the developments in the field. The CEO stated that “while remittances are at present largely sent via foreign exchange branches, blockchain-based alternatives hold tremendous promise for the industry”. While commenting on the aim of bringing the technology to the mainstream via UAE Exchange’s joint venture with Ripple, Manghat went on stating; “we expect to go live with Ripple by Q1, 2019 with one or two Asian banks. This is for remittances to start with, from across the globe into Asia”.
Earlier Announcements on the Partnership
The first time the sides talked about the recent partnership was in February this year. They had confirmed that UAE Exchange hence became the largest payments firm in the Middle East to use RippleNet. In addition to UAE Exchange, major financial institutions in the region including the National Bank of Ras Al Khaimah RAKB.AD and Kuwait Finance House, have also joined RippleNet.
Earlier UAE’s Central Bank had revealed that they are working with Saud Arabian Monetary Authority. They aim to issue a cryptocurrency that will be accepted in cross-border inter-bank transactions between the two countries.
