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.
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).
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.
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).
The duo of the Qatari National Bank (QNB) with 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.
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).
Blockchain payments firm Ripple has announced a $200 million Series C share buyback, a decision that will take the San Francisco-based tech firm to a record-high valuation of $15 billion.
Back in December 2019, Ripple raised $200 million in a Series C funding round with Tetragon Financial Group, a United Kingdom-based investment firm, acting as the lead investor alongside other participants SBI Holdings and Route 66 Ventures.
However, in December 2020, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) issued a $1.3 billion-dollar financial lawsuit against Ripple Labs, as well as co-founder Chris Larsen and CEO Brad Garlinghouse; accusing the parties of using the native XRP token as an unlicensed digital asset security.
Intent on disassociating themselves with Ripple amid their high-profile and openly public lawsuit, Tetragon sued Ripple in early January 2021 in the Delaware Chancery Court, seeking to enact their contractual obligation of a buyback clause to the value of their undisclosed investment sum.
However, just three months later in April, the court ruled in favor of Ripple and against the plaintiff, Tetragon, putting an end to the financial dispute.
In choosing to willingly purchasing the shares from Tetragon, SBI Holdings and Route 66 Ventures, it implies that Ripple is seeking to enhance their financial strength, a sentiment which Garlinghouse eluded to in a recent tweet thread.
“Even with 2021’s headwinds, it was our best year on record”, he stated, alongside revealing that their $1 billion bank balance position places them in the “strongest we’ve ever been.”
RippleX – full speed ahead on establishing a multitude of capabilities to the XRP Ledger – NFTs, CBDCs, interoperability bridges, sidechains and so much more – working hand in hand with devs and partners around the world. It’s a multichain world after all 4/4
— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) January 26, 2022
Alongside the news of buyback and valuation, Garlinghouse also shared optimism for the future of RippleNet and Ripple X, the latter of which is posed to enhance the utility of the XRP Ledger in an array of emerging sectors, including nonfungible tokens, central bank digital currencies, as well as interoperable, multi-chain functionalities, among others.
Cointelegraph reached out to Ripple for comment but did not receive a response at publishing time.
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.
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 theauthorand 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.
The National Bank of Egypt (NBE), Egypt’s largest and oldest bank, has inked a partnership deal with blockchain-based company Ripple, to utilize the latter’s digital payment solution, RippleNet, in order to facilitate cross-border transactions.
NBE Uses RippleNet for Cross-Border Payment Settlements
Rippleannouncedthe partnership deal via a press release on Tuesday (May 18, 2021). According to the announcement, the NBE and Lulu International Exchange, a financial services provider headquartered in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), will use RippleNet to improve cross-border payments from the UAE to Egypt.
With cross-border remittances being costly and slow as a result of the friction on the global payments infrastructure, NBE and Lulu are seeking a better alternative that would make remittance into Egypt faster and cheaper. Egypt is the world’s fifth largest remittance recipient after India, China, Mexico, and the Philippines, with $24 billion remittance payments received in 2020 alone.
Commenting on the recent partnership, NBE’s Head for Financial Institutions and International Financial Services, Hesham Elsafty, said:
“NBE’s partnership with Ripple will help to improve overall efficiency by enabling NBE to establish new alliances across wider markets with reduced cost and quicker integration time. We are very excited to announce our new partnership with Ripple and Lulu which we believe will contribute to a further acceleration of the Egypt-UAE remittances corridor.”
The Managing Director of Lulu Financial Group, Adeeb Ahamed, also made a statement, saying:
“Our partnership with Ripple and NBE reaffirms our commitment to enhance the payments ecosystem of the MENA (Middle East and North Africa) region through meaningful collaboration and suitable adoption of technology.”
More Financial Institutions Continue to Adopt RippleNet
The NBE joins the list of financial institutions utilizing RippleNet for seamless cross-border payments. Others like theUnionBankof the Philippines, UAE-based commercial bankRAKBank, and Thailand’sSiam Commercial Bankare among the banks using Ripple’s digital payment solution.
Earlier in May, Cambodian bank SBI LY HOURlauncheda blockchain solution powered by RippleNet, that would improve cross-border transactions between the country and Vietnam.
Meanwhile, the blockchain company is still facing a lawsuit with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Back in December, the SEC alleged that Ripple conducted an unregistered securities offering worth $1.3 billion, an allegation the company denies. Just before the SEC lawsuit, Ripple announced that it wassetting upa regional office in Dubai.
U.S financial giant Bank of America has joined the Paxos Settlement Service to use blockchain technology to achieve same-day settlement of stock trades.
Bank of America to Settle Stock Trades Using Paxos Blockchain Solution
This development was revealed by media outlet Bloomberg on Monday. The U.S bank joins Credit Suisse Group AG and Nomura Holdings Inc Instinet to use the Paxos Settlement Service. According to the report, the Bank of America has been conducting internal transactions for the past few months using the service. Bank of America has already applied with regulators to offer clearing services and using Paxos Settlement Service will make settlement faster.
Kevin McCarthy, head of financing and clearing at Bank of America stated that the bank will extend the services next to clients if approved. He further added that Paxos’s flexibility and cost savings were a central selling point for the bank.
“We can determine the settlement cycle down to T+0, “We then can free up the collateral we’d have to post on an overnight basis,” which could lead to big savings. “The return-on-assets in this business would improve, which has been a challenge,” he said.
The current settlement time is about 2 days, and using Paxos Settlement Services will reduce this to a few hours. Paxos Settlement System connects investors directly using a solution built on the Ethereum blockchain. This will transform the current markets and ensure flexible and speedier stock settlement using blockchain technology.
Paxos Chief Officer Chad Cascarilla believes that the move will pose a threat to the market dominance of the Depository Trust & Clearing Corp.’s (DTCC). Only trades logged by DTCC by 11 a.m. are eligible to be settled that day, missing about 75% of all stocks traded on a given day, he added.
Blockchain Adoption on the Rise
Blockchain adoption by financial giants has continued to move at a rapid pace due to the potentials it offers. Several banks have joined blockchain-based solutions like RippleNet ODL to process cross-border transactions.
These solutions offer faster and cheaper transactions than traditional systems using distributed ledger technology. The news that Bank of America has joined Paxos is huge since it is the second-largest bank in the United States.
Cambodian bank SBI LY HOUR Bank has launched the first blockchain-based remittance services between Cambodia and Vietnam. This solution is expected to improve cross-border transactions between the two countries.
Blockchain transfer via RippleNet
The development was revealed by local news outlet phonmpenhpost on Monday, May 10. According to the report, the new blockchain solution will be powered by RippleNet.
The deployment of RippleNet is part of the partnership with TPBank, which SBI holding has a considerable investment. This remittance solution will enable customers to make real-time and low-cost money transfers from Cambodia to Vietnam.
The solution is integrated with Bakong, the payment system initiated by the National Bank of Cambodia. Thus customers can make instant transfers from their accounts directly to the RippleNet solution.
Before its deployment, cross-border payments took between 2-3 days before arriving at their destination. The Ripplenet solution is an innovative one for customers in Cambodia since it enables instant cross-border payment settlements.
Speaking on the development, SBI LY HOUR Bank CEO Soeurng Uth stated that the solution would offer convenient cross-border transfers.
“SBI LY HOUR Bank is happy to co-operate with TPBank, which SBI Holdings has invested in. To have such real-time and low-cost money transfers absolutely benefits the Cambodian people. Customers will be able to quickly transfer out via our bank partnerships.”
SBI Ripple Asia CEO0 Adam Traidman was of similar sentiments and stated that the Cambodia market was a major part of RippleNet expansion plans. “The booming Cambodian economy is one of the most attractive markets around the world. SBI LY HOUR Bank has achieved steady business success. The adoption of new technologies will further differentiate the bank from its competitors. We will expand our collaboration to include digital assets based on remittance services in the future,”
RippleNet Ecosystem Continues to Expand
Currently, over 80 institutions are using RippleNet solutions, and the list continues to grow. In April, BTCManager revealed that the Novatti Group joined the RippleNet ODL service. RippleNet has become the go-to blockchain payment network for banks and financial institutions that want quick and low-cost remittance solutions. The deployment of the RippleNet solution by SBI LY HOUR makes it the latest bank to join the blockchain payment network.
Recently, Novatti Group adopted RippleNet’s global payment network service, known as On-Demand Liquidity (ODL). Novatti Group can now leverage digital asset XRP, for instant cross-border payments, through the ODL service.
Novatti Group’s Financial Prowess
Through On-Demand Liquidity, RippleNet utilizes XRP, a digital asset, as a bridge between two currencies, enabling the user to avoid pre-funding destination accounts and lower operational costs.
Novatti is a renowned digital banking and payments company founded on the 19th of June 2015. The Group’s founder is Peter Cook, and its headquarters are in Australia. Novatti has different platforms, including fintech, billing, and business automation, to facilitate effortless, swift, and secure payments.
Advancing Remittance Payments in Southeast Asia
In December 2020, Novatti partnered with Ripple, intending to target the Southeast Asia region. RippleNet enables its users to process global payments instantly and access high-growth capabilities, includingXRPand blockchain. Additionally, Novatti’s customers can access other financial institutions that Ripple works with, such as Money Gram and American express.
Ripple and Novatti’s partnership mostly gives attention to the remittances between Australia and the Philippines. The two organizations do so through iRemit, the Philippines-owned and non-bank remittance service provider.
Benefits of Novatti Adopting ODL
ODL facilitates instant cross-border payments to Novatti and its fintech customers. Therefore, there is no need for pre-funding accounts on each side of a transaction. The accounts tie funds all over the globe, thus building on expense to every transaction.
Additionally, when using pre-funded accounts to facilitate payments, transactions’ full settlement takes long and with no visibility into the payment status.
When utilizing XRP payments, RippleNet’sODL servicecan instantly bridge currencies, thus lowering operational costs, unlocking capital, and essentially doing away with pre-funded accounts.
Novatti aims at making many transactions each month and scaling the service to more fintech customers in Southeast Asia throughRippleNet. The adoption of RippleNet’s service, ODL, will form a new potential income source for Novatti’s core payments processing business.
XRP surges above $1.5
The recentcourt case rulingon the Ripple vs. SEC case has positively affected XRP, as the crypto surged above the $1.5 mark. The ruling denied the Security Exchange Commission access to years of Ripple labs’ financial records. Ripple’s native digital asset hit $1 for the first time in three years, surging over 40% in 2021. XRP’s market value stood at $1.8 with a 6% 24h upward price change at press time.
Ripple has sealed another partnership, this time with Novatti, an international payments firm.
Together with Ripple, Novatti will fuel the remittance services from Australia to Southeast Asia using RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) service, which leverages XRP for instant, cross-border payments. Per Ripple’s official blog post:
“Live now, Novatti expects to process several thousand transactions a month through RippleNet and is planning to quickly scale the service to more fintech customers and other countries in Southeast Asia.”
The partnership initially focused on remittances between Australia and the Philippines through Filipino-owned remittance service provider iRemit, according to Ripple’s official announcement. Currently, Philippines is the third-largest remittance receiving country in Asia, after India and China, with Filipinos abroad sending home $33.19 billion USD in 2020. Ripple delved deeper in how XRP could be used to power remittance services.
Using XRP, a digital asset built for payments, ODL can instantly bridge currencies, eliminating the need for pre-funded accounts. This unlocks capital and reduces operational costs, savings that can be passed on to customers and put to use in more effective ways,” the team wrote.
Ripple’s success as a fintech firm has continued, despite its legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). Currently, the blockchain firm is being sued by the SEC in a $1.3 billion lawsuit over XRP, which the agency deems to be an unregistered digital asset security.
Nevertheless, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has mentioned that the company’s growth in the remittance sector has continued to expand, growing fivefold in 2020. Since the lawsuit in December, Ripple has signed at least 15 new customers, despite certain companies such as MoneyGram and Tetragon concluding their partnership with it.
Garlinghouse has revealed that a majority of Ripple’s business occurred outside of the United States and took place in the Asia Pacific Region. Previously, he had considered migrating Ripple’s headquarters out of San Francisco, citing the unclear regulatory clarity regarding cryptocurrencies in the US as problematic.
Currently, on the back of several court wins, XRP has regained its status as the fourth-largest cryptocurrency on the market. Its price has appreciated and the token is currently trading at $1.72 on CoinMarketCap, a huge gain from when it plummeted to lows of $0.20 in December 2020, following the SEC’s lawsuit against Ripple.
With former Commodities and Futures Trading Commission chairman Gary Gensler entering the SEC as the new chairman, Garlinghouse hopes that there will be an opportunity to revisit how XRP is considered in the US.
