Euro Exim Bank Taps Ripple’ s xRapid for Cross- Border Settlements

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Euro Exim Bank, a London-based bank primarily focused on
providing financial services for export and import companies, will
become the first bank to publicly announce it is using the XRP
cryptocurrency for cross-border payments.

Ripple announced Tuesday that Euro Exim Bank, alongside
payment startups JNFX, SendFriend, Transpaygo and FTCS, would
be leveraging XRP for cross-border transactions. Further, Ahli
Bank of Kuwait, BFC Bahrain, ConnectPay, GMT, WorldCom
Finance, Olympia Trust Company, Pontual/USEND and
Rendimento have signed on to RippleNet.

As a result, the startup now has more than 200 customers
worldwide, according to Tuesday’s reveal.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse said the company is now signing
two-three customers per week, and last year saw a 350 percent
increase in customers sending live payments.

“We’re beginning to see more customers flip the switch and
leverage XRP for on-demand liquidity,” he added in a statement.
Euro Exim Bank director Kaushik Punjani noted that his bank’s
customers have traditionally been restricted from settling
transactions quickly and cost efficiently. This issue extends to
both major corporations and individual remitters, he said, adding:

“Working collaboratively with Ripple and selected counterparts,
we have designed, tested and are implementing both xCurrent
and xRapid in record time, and we look forward to the benefits
these will bring our customers.”

David Lighton, CEO and co-founder of remittance service
SendFriend, similarly touted the focus on cheap cross-border
payments as the main benefit of using xRapid.

“A distributed ledger-based solution, leveraging Ripple’s XRP
asset allows us to settle transactions in real time, with lower
capital requirements and lower costs. We’re proud to partner with
Ripple to offer our customers cheaper, faster, payments to the
developing world,” he told CoinDesk.

A number of other companies have already begun using xRapid ,
which uses the XRP cryptocurrency, for international payments,
including MercuryFX, Cuallix and Catalyst Corporate Credit Union.
However, while the three firms provide financial services, none
possess a banking license like Euro Exim does.
In the past, other companies including Western Union,
MoneyGram, Viamercias and IDT have trialed xRapid, though none
are utilizing the platform in full production at this time.

https://www.coindesk.com/