As the remittance market grows in emerging and major corridors, so too does the need to make payments real-time, transparent and certain.

In fact, global remittances — which include flows to high-income countries — were estimated to be $596 billion in 2017.

To serve the bustling remittance market, Ripple is proud to announce that two new partners — IDT Corporation and MercuryFX — will now use xRapid to settle retail remittances and corporate transactions quickly.

Both companies join MoneyGram and Cuallix, who will use XRP in their payment flows, to enable on-demand liquidity for global payments.

MercuryFX and IDT use XRP to improve customer experience

IDT and MercuryFX both have unique customers and business models. However, they share a common goal of continuously improving their customer experience.

For MercuryFX — a leading global currency exchange provider — their focus is on challenging the status quo in retail remittance payments. Similar to Ripple’s goal of reducing friction in global payments, MercuryFX wants to help payments move in real time, providing a more efficient and transparent customer experience.

“Ripple, XRP and fiat currency fit hand in glove. What we’re doing together is realizing one of the best use cases for frictionless transactions, which is international settlement. xRapid allows us to drive down the cost of currency exchange and global settlement, making our customers more competitive and saving them tens of millions of dollars each year.

“Digital assets promise fast transaction speeds but XRP is far faster than all of them, including bitcoin. Cutting settlement times from hours and days to just three seconds or less will remove billions of dollars in unnecessary intermediary fees,” said Alastair Constance, CEO and founder of Mercury FX.

For IDT — a publicly traded telecommunications company, which facilitates online money transfers between individuals — the goal is to make sure their customers can send low-cost global payments.

“Our BOSS Revolution international money transfer business routinely utilizes digital assets to generate liquidity in fiat currencies for our disbursement agents as part of our transaction settlement process,” said Alfredo O’Hagan, senior vice president of IDT’s consumer payments business.

“We’re excited to pilot Ripple’s xRapid solution for on-demand liquidity. We expect that xRapid will enable us to settle more transactions in real-time and at a lower cost.”

Payment providers contributing to Internet of Value

The growing institutional adoption of XRP, through the on-demand liquidity solution, xRapid, shows that real progress is being made towards building the Internet of Value (IoV).

IoV is Ripple’s long-term vision for moving money the same way information moves today — instantly.

With xRapid and XRP, financial institutions can eliminate the need for costly intermediaries or pre-funded Nostro accounts in destination currencies.

Now, these payment providers will be able to send real-time payments at a low cost while giving customers visibility into the status of their payments.

“It’s no secret that XRP is faster and more efficient than bitcoin or any other digital asset. It settles in three seconds and at fractions of a penny,” said Brad Garlinghouse, CEO of Ripple. “Payment providers like IDT Corporation and MercuryFX are early movers because they understand what XRP can do for their business and customer experience. We’re excited to have them at the forefront of the Internet of Value.”

Learn more about how xRapid can help your financial institution source on-demand liquidity and send real-time payments.