2018 has been a monumental year for RippleNet. Ripple has expanded its reach and network and has seen monumental growth with an average of signing two production customers every week. Ripple is also fast, cheap and transparent in its cross-border payments to more than 40 countries in all six continents.

On Monday, RippleNet made an announcement that they will now provide on-demand liquidity to financial institutions for cross-border payments using XRP. xRapid, the real-time settlement platform is now commercially available and moving into production with customers MercuryFX, Cuallix, and Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union.

xRapid is going into commercial production. @mercury_fx_ltd, @Cuallix and Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union will be the first to make on-demand cross-border payments on RippleNet using #XRP. https://t.co/dQ02J4vdBl — Ripple (@Ripple) October 1, 2018

Benefits of xRapid

xRapid will eliminate the need for pre-funded Nostro account (an account that a bank holds in a foreign currency in another bank) when executing cross-border payments, instead, it will source liquidity from XRP on exchanges around the world. As a result, cross-border transactions will take mere minutes and a fraction of the cost compared to traditional banking which takes up to 5 days and also charges high foreign exchange fees.

MercuryFX and Cuallix both participated in the first pilot of xRapid earlier this year and saw immediate cost and speed improvements. MercuryFX will deploy xRapid for Europe to Mexico corridor. Cuallix will deploy xRapid for the U.S. to Mexico corridor with its financial services platforms Payllix and Cuallet that will provide better customer experience to individuals and families wanting to send money back home.

Alastair Constance, CEO and founder of MercuryFX says –

MercuryFX has been working closely with Ripple for more than a year to bring the power of RippleNet to our customers. In pilot tests, we saw the benefits of xRapid, and we’re excited to roll commercial payments out within the quarter. The time to replace slow, expensive payments architecture is now because the need for global access to smooth-flowing capital has never been so acute.

Nicolas Palacios, CFO of Cuallix says –

The promise of digital assets has always been faster, more efficient payments. That’s why we started exploring xRapid for our financial services platforms Payllix and Cuallet — to help our customers whose livelihoods depend on sending micro-payments easily and quickly to Mexico. Now, our customers can finally realize that promise.

Even Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union (CCFCU) which is a financial institution with more than 1,400 members in the U.S. will use xRapid to create a new cross-border payment service.

Brad Ganey, senior vice president and COO, Catalyst Corporate says –

The traditional international wire experience fails to meet today’s expectations from a price, speed and ease-of-use perspective. Blockchain technology and specifically Ripple’s xRapid resolves all three of these challenges simultaneously. Catalyst Corporate, through our subsidiary companies’ technology platforms, will leverage the XRP digital asset to transfer money across borders instantly on behalf of our 1400+ member credit unions. We have signed a production contract and are currently building out our plan.

Blockmanity’s Take

XRP is the third largest cryptocurrency and its value has risen significantly this year. Just last month Ripple even surpassed Ethereum to occupy the second spot on Coinmarketcap. With the addition of this news, Ripple is on its way to even greater heights.

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