Tag: REMITTANCE

Alchemy Pay Scores License to Expand in Indonesia

by Blockchain News

A license to execute remittance and financial transfers in partnership with a local fintech business, Berkah Digital Pembayaran, has been issued to cryptocurrency payment service Alchemy Pay by the central bank of Indonesia. This license will allow Alchemy Pay to work with Berkah Digital Pembayaran. Both Alchemy Pay and BDPay were granted permission to use this license, which enables them to improve the payment ways they provide customers and lower their overall operating expenses.

In addition to providing local and cross-border remittance services, client payroll services, and transfers through bank application programming interfaces, Berkah Digital Pembayaran is a payment service provider. According to information gleaned from the official website of Bank Indonesia, the business was recently included on a list as a payment service provider falling under licensing category three. Transfers to any of Indonesia’s 136 banks may be made using the BDPay platform by retail and business customers alike.

Due to the acquisition of this license, the cryptocurrency on-ramp offered by Alchemy Pay is now able to enable payments made using Mastercard, Visa, Google Pay, Apple Pay, and other regional mobile wallets such as BDPay. At this time, operations are being carried out in 173 countries, and the organization is well-known for its relationships with big crypto giants like as the Binance exchange.

The acquisition of the license is a major achievement for Alchemy Pay as the company works to expand its service offerings throughout Asia and bolster its standing in the cryptocurrency payment sector. The firm began operations in 2018 in Singapore and manages its own utility token known as Alchemy Pay (ACH), which is issued on the Ethereum blockchain. The company was founded in 2018. The Automated Clearing House (ACH) system is an essential component of the Alchemy Pay network, since it is responsible for the provision of transaction fees, network incentives, and other operations.

In conclusion, the license that was awarded to Alchemy Pay and BDPay by the central bank of Indonesia allows the firms to provide improved payment ways while simultaneously lowering their operational expenses. This license is an important milestone for Alchemy Pay as it continues to extend its service offerings across Asia and improves its position within the bitcoin payment sector.

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PayPal Xoom Offers Debit Card Deposit Cross-Border Remittance

by Blockchain News

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The international money transfer service Xoom, which is owned and operated by the financial technology company PayPal, has introduced a new offering that enables customers in the United States to send money straight to users of Visa debit cards.

A recent release made by PayPal indicated a partnership between Xoom and the financial services company Visa. This partnership makes it possible for debit card customers to receive payments straight from Xoom.

There are now 25 nations that support the functionality, some of which include the Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Ukraine, and Vietnam. Users no longer have to wait the standard amount of time for wire transfers, which is five business days, since a recently introduced feature now makes it possible for them to have access to their money in a matter of minutes.

According to Wei-Lin Lee, vice president of remittances at PayPal, the new service has the potential to assist individuals throughout the winter and during the holidays. Lee noted that during those times, many customers were transferring money to their friends and family located in other countries, and that this process needed to be completed as rapidly as possible.

Yanilsa Gonzalez-Ore, the CEO of Visa Direct North America, observed that there has been a rise in demand for “digital solutions that assist eliminate hurdles” among those who want to transfer money to other countries.

In the meanwhile, PayPal has become more comprehensive in its coverage of all aspects of financial transactions. In improving its product offerings in international financial transactions, the firm has now begun accepting cryptocurrencies as payment.

In 2018, the company launched the pilot program for its cross-border payments, which resulted in considerable time and cost savings for participating institutions.

In the year 2022, the business began enabling native transfers of digital assets from PayPal to other wallets and exchanges that were hosted on third-party platforms. Cross-border payments for companies are often connected with Ripple within the crypto space. Ripple is the company that is behind the XRP coin, which is now at the center of an ongoing court case.

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QNB Extends RippleNet Remittance Transfer to the Phillippines

by Blockchain News

The duo of the Qatari National Bank (QNB) and China Banking Corporation (China Bank), a private universal bank in the Philippines, are expanding the remittance capabilities of the RippleNet protocol for the benefit of Filipinos living in Qatar.

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As announced by QNB, Philippines Nationals will now be able to send as much as 50,000 PHP (or $895) in real-time, while funds higher and sent after 3 pm Manila time will be processed the following day. The QNB hopes to utilise the speed of the RippleNet as regards its cross-border capabilities to enhance financial transactions for its target customers.

“QNB has always been a pioneer financial technology accelerator in Qatar and the region. Our partnership with Ripple will provide our customers with a frictionless and safe experience to send funds in a way that fits their lifestyle,” said Adel Al-Malki, General Manager of QNB Group Retail Banking.

The expansion of the remittance services to the Phillippines through the RippleNet comes off as a testament that the cross-border payment agreement between the bank and Ripple Labs Inc is blossoming. The agreement to collaborate on making these sorts of financial transactions accessible to all was reached back in October last year, as reported by Blockchain.News.

“QNB is our biggest partner in the MENA region, and we are delighted to continuously strengthen this partnership on RippleNet to additional countries. The Philippines is one of the largest remittance receivers globally, and we are pleased to be connecting QNB with China Bank to process remittances from Qatar to the Philippines via RippleNet,” said Navin Gupta, Managing Director, South Asia & MENA at Ripple.

As its core business, Ripple has always explored avenues to foster more innovative and inclusive payments services through its proprietary RippleNet technology and On-Demand Liquidity (ODL).

Besides trading payment offerings, Ripple has also been working with Central Banks worldwide to help develop and deploy their Central Bank Digital Currencies (CBDCs).

 

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HSBC and Wells Fargo Utilize Blockchain Technology, Enhancing Foreign Exchange Transactions

by Blockchain News

HSBC and Wells Fargo have signed a strategic agreement to use a settlement ledger powered by blockchain technology when undertaking foreign exchange (FX) transactions. This move is deemed a stepping stone towards minimizing settlement risk.

In a statement, Mark Jones, co-head of Macro, Wells Fargo Corporate & Investment Bank, welcomed this move and said:

“We are extremely excited to be collaborating with HSBC on a project which places both organizations at the forefront of blockchain innovation. We believe this will be the first step of many utilizing transformative technology across our industry in the years ahead.”

Using blockchain technology, two banks will enjoy efficient Payment-vs-Payment (PVP) settlement netting. Furthermore, real-time transparency will be availed in the FX transactions. 

The blockchain-based settlement ledger is also expected to reduce associated settlement costs in the $6.6 trillion-a-day foreign exchange market. 

The agreement also means that the two leading financial companies will bypass the nearly two-decades-old Continuous Linked Settlement (CLS) system used for FX transitions.  

The ledger will be used to process the US dollar, Canadian dollar, Euro, and British pound sterling transactions with plans to extend to other currencies soon.

Mark Williamson, the global head of FX partnerships & propositions at HSBC, noted that this was a step forward towards more financial innovations. 

“As financial services continue to digitize the store of payment and value on blockchain, we are delighted to work with Wells Fargo in the adoption of this important cross-border digital backbone for the confirmation and settlement of Foreign Exchange trades.”

Meanwhile, the central banks of France and Switzerland, together with the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), successfully conducted a wholesale Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) trial involving the nations’ fiat notes.

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Traders sit idly by as Ripple (XRP) price struggles to avoid a drop to $0.70

by Cointelegraph

Ripple’s (XRP) rallied 72% from Aug. 7 to Aug. 14, but since then, every attempt to break out of the descending channel has been quickly suppressed. The past ten days have been no different, with the XRP price correcting by 15%.

The platform was first launched in 2012 and Ripple is a distributed open-source protocol and remittance system created by U.S.-based Ripple Labs. The company provides cross-border payment solutions through domestic partnerships or by offering RippleNet services.

At one point, XRP price was trading above $2, but the ongoing multi-year lawsuit between Ripple and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is one factor placing persistent downward pressure on price and investors’ appetites.

The lawsuit began in December 2020 when the SEC alleged that CEO Brad Garlinghouse and co-founder Chris Larsen had been conducting an “unregistered, ongoing digital asset securities offering” with their XRP token sales.

As a result, XRP faced delistings across many leading cryptocurrency exchanges in the U.S., including Binance.US, Coinbase and Bitstamp.

XRP price at Bitstamp in USD. Source: TradingView

The most recent pump in early September could have been caused by the Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings planning to set up a cryptocurrency fund. Tomoya Asakura, a director and senior managing executive officer at SBI, said the company could see the fund growing to several hundred million dollars.

SBI Holdings owns 60% of a joint venture with Ripple named SBI Ripple Asia, which provides RippleNet technology to financial institutions and money transfer service operators in Japan, South Korea and certain Southeast Asian countries. In addition, Ripple owns 33% of Money Tap, a Japanese payments network operated by SBI and 38 other banks.

Pro traders are neutral on XRP price

To understand how whales and arbitrage desks are positioned, one should analyze the quarterly futures contracts premium (basis rate). In the fixed-month contracts, eventual demand imbalances are reflected by a price difference versus regular spot markets.

XRP Dec. futures premium (above) vs. XRP price in USDT (Below). Source: TradingView

Healthy derivatives markets should display a 5% to 15% premium because traders are requesting more money to postpone the settlement. A low or negative basis rate is a bearish indicator and it signals that investors are uncomfortable creating long positions using leverage.

Notice how the December futures contract premium at Binance peaked above 5% on Sept. 6, as traders were hyped by the potential $1.40 breakout. That premium was equivalent to 17% per year and signaled excessive leverage from longs (buyers).

The recent XRP price correction eased the market expectations and the current 1.9% price gap for a 3-month period is equivalent to 7.8% per year, a neutral indicator.

Retail traders confirm a neutral stance

On the other hand, retail traders’ preferred derivatives instrument is the perpetual futures because its price usually perfectly tracks the regular spot markets. There is also no need to manually roll over contracts nearing expiry as required on quarterly futures.

In any futures contract, trade longs (buyers) and shorts (sellers) are matched at all times, but their leverage varies. Consequently, exchanges will charge whichever side is using more leverage at a funding rate to balance their risk, and this fee is paid to the opposing side.

Neutral markets tend to display a 0%–0.03% positive funding rate, equivalent to 0.6% per week, indicating that longs are the ones paying.

XRP perpetual futures 8-hour funding rate. Source: Bybt.com

Data reveals an excitement period from leverage longs that lasted from Aug. 8 to Sept. 7, with average 8-hour fees peaking at 0.10%. This number is equivalent to 2.1% per week, which isn’t sustainable for more extended periods.

Both retail-oriented perpetual and pro traders’ quarterly contracts show absolutely no sign of bearishness, which should be interpreted as a positive considering the 15% negative performance over the past ten days.

The views and opinions expressed here are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Cointelegraph. Every investment and trading move involves risk. You should conduct your own research when making a decision.