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Western Union has confirmed testing transactions based on Rippleās Blockchain to provide faster and cheaper domestic and cross-border transfers.
The financial services provider Western Union (WU) is testing transactions with the use of Rippleās (XRP) Blockchain-based settlement system, the companyās Chief Financial Officer Raj Agrawal said in an interview with Bloomberg Feb. 14.
The globally known money transfer company Western Union confirmed that it is testing Ripple following more than a month of rumor-fuelled speculation that began in early January. The announcement comes after Western Union reported its 2017 results, claiming a revenue of $1.4 bln - a 5 percent increase over the previous year.
As Rippleās CEO Brad Garlinghouse told Bloomberg, WU has decided to look into their platform in order to facilitate money transfers, particularly cross-border ones. Garlinghouse explained their choice by claiming that Ripple allows for transactions that are āa thousand times faster and a thousand times cheaper than Bitcoinās.ā
According to Bloomberg, Western Unionās Chief Executive Officer Hikmet Ersek also confirmed that testing is taking place during a conference call Tuesday, Feb. 13.
āWe are looking especially in the processing settlement and working capital optimization, also in the regulation part, on the compliance part on the blockchain capabilities,ā Ersek said, adding āwe do have some tests with Ripple.ā
Ripple (XRP) is a Blockchain-based settlement protocol and a cryptocurrency that has reached almost half of Bitcoinās market capitalization in early January 2018, when its price rallied to over $3.00 per coin. By the middle of January, however, the XRP price has bounced back to a little over $1.00.
Wednesday, Feb. 14, Cointelegraph reported on a partnership signed between Ripple and the Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) to provide the technology for cross-border payments to banks in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA).
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