Ripple is optimistic about the future of digital cross border payment in Philippine, and the blockchain firm is already making effort to transform the archaic slow and costly means of transferring fund in the country, Kelvin Lee, Ripple’s Southeast Managing Director has explained in an email conversation with Philippine-based news outlet Manila Standard.
With blockchain technology, Ripple wants to upgrade the payments system, and allow Filipinos from across the globe to send funds to their friends and families at home at a cheaper and faster rate without any hassle.
Lee said Ripple was established in the year 2012 to profer solution to the out-of-date global payments system with a reliable, instant and costless cross-border remittance solution.
To solve one of the greatest challenges of global fund transfer –liquidity trapping, Ripple established the On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) product, allowing its customers to use XRP digital assets as bridge currency while executing transactions.
Lee who holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Economics from Queen Mary University of London thinks XRP solves the about $10 trillion trapped fund problem and used to pre-fund account in destination currencies. Lee said this lowers the cost of transactions and enables quicker and real-time transactions.
ODL lets RippleNet customers source for instant liquidity with XRP without needing account prefunding. This offers a more effective use of capital in developing markets like the Philippine, the Ripple’s managing director said, adding that Azimo has been able to slash transaction costs by 30 percent to 50 percent for foreign-based Filipinos sending money to their families at home.
Another Ripple’s customer in Philippine using blockchain technology to settle transactions is SendFriend. Send Friend offers a cheap, fast and secure remittance service.
Lee further said irrespective of the unstable foreign exchange rate, the speed offered by RippleNet solution lets oversee-based Filipinos send money home at a determined rate that eliminates the fear of unfavorable exchange rates experienced with traditional payment platforms.
He said the Ripple-based solution is especially useful in the Philippines as the country stands an important market out of the over 50% of Ripple’s customers, which are from the Asia Pacific region. Lee said having recorded $34 billion international transaction volume in 2018, the Philippine stands as a top remittance destination across the world.
Considering the growing demand for e-payments in the Philippines and the expected 15% growth in global remittance due to the lasting pandemic, Lee said he’s optimistic about the growth of the San Francisco-based company in the Philippine.
