Remittance firms UAE Exchange and Unimoni have gone live with blockchain-based payments using Ripple technology.

Finablr, which owns the two brands, announced Sunday that “real-time” cross-border remittances using RippleNet are now live, starting with payments for its international customers to Thailand. Other destination countries are expected to be added going forward.

The service was launched in partnership with Thailand’s Siam Commercial Bank, the firm said.

Finablr director and CEO Promoth Manghat commented:

“The adoption of blockchain opens up considerable potential to streamline remittances and provide a frictionless, fast and secure payments experience.”

Aside from UAE Exchange and Unimoni, Finablr also owns brands such as Travelex, Xpress Money, Remit2India Ditto and Swych, and is looking to deploy blockchain technology across some of their services too, according to the announcement.

UAE Exchange first partnered with Ripple in February 2018, aiming to reduce the costs and frictions associated with cross-border transactions. In December, Manghat revealed that the firm was planning to launch Ripple-based payments to Asia by the first quarter of this year.

At least 200 banks and financial firms around the world have now tapped Ripple for blockchain-based payments.

Back in December, National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) launched a new remittance service, dubbed NBK Direct Remit, using Ripple’s technology. Malaysian banking group CIMB, South Korean crypto exchange Coinone and U.S. banking giant PNC have also joined RippleNet in recent months.

While most clients have opted to use its payments infrastructure without the XRP cryptocurrency that Ripple helped develop, Euro Exim Bank became the first bank to publicly announce it is using XRP for cross-border payments in early January.

UAE dirhams image via Shutterstock