At the CryptoCompare & MJAC London Blockchain Summit on Friday, the head of Regulatory relations for Europe, Dan Morgan was part of a regulatory panel discussion in which he was asked several questions and he made numerous comments on Ripple, as you would expect.

During the discussion, Siamak Masnavi from CryptoGlobe asked Morgan what he thought about the regularity Clarity in the various markets that Ripple operates in and if it was true that Asia and Latin America were the main two regions for Ripple’s strongest presence.

In response to this, Morgan stated:

“It's very early days, but we see the biggest appetite in Asian markets, in terms of demand, so remittance demand, whether it is corridors that are under-served because correspondence banking is too costly... So, we feel that there is demand...and regulatory certainty is the third [factor]. Again, we see a number of pockets around Asia where they are further ahead that we are here... Thailand, I talked about. Obviously, Japan is another place. So, you are absolutely right, it is Asia.”

Asian demand

In September this year, Ripple also spoke on the demand in Asia stating:

"The inefficient management of global liquidity has long been a hurdle for cross-border payments in all regions across the world. However, this problem is particularly prominent in the Association of South Eastern Asian Nations (ASEAN) region, which has been largely underserved by correspondent banking. As a result, cross-border payments into these countries are inefficient and racked with high fees. Neighbouring countries relying on the correspondent banking system have to first convert currency into U.S. dollars, then settle across multiple correspondent banks before finally being exchanged to the currency used at the beneficiary institution. This cumbersome process requires numerous fees, including two sets of foreign exchange. As a result, there is little to no support for the low-value payments that small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and remitters need to make."

This was the day that Ripple announced that Siam Commercial Bank would be among the first financial institutions to use multi-hop, which is a feature of RippleNet:

"With multi-hop, financial institutions can connect directly to SCB, which can settle and payout across the region without exchanging currencies multiple times and adding heavy fees. The result is a seamless payments experience into and out of the ASEAN region. For smaller financial institutions which previously did not have the ability to make payments into ASEAN, multi-hop will democratize access to those countries and make payments easier, regardless of payment size or their financial institution’s pool of liquidity."

What are your thoughts? Let us know what you think down below in the comments!