The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development or OECD works with governments, financial institutions and policymakers to create a fairer/more equal society.

The OECD Global Blockchain Policy Forum attracts big financial hitters from the world of finance and blockchain technology, this year it seems Ripple Tech stole the show.

At Ripple we are building a decentralised global network for the transfer of value, part of that is business as usual based on the fiat to fiat currencies, you cannot change the world overnight Marjan Delatinne – Ripple Global Head of Banking

Make sure you check out what Western Union had to say at the conference and how they feel about digital assets like XRP below…

The fact that blockchain technology was being so openly discussed by global financial powerhouses as if it is mainstream news is incredibly exciting.

Watching discussions like these mean digital assets like XRP are becoming mainstream and global mass adoption is on the horizon.

Dated System

Currently, international payments are completed via pre-funded accounts to honor the transaction, this means $10 Trillion is tied up in what are called Nostro/Vostro accounts.

Typically a cross-border payment in a very liquid currency takes 3-5 days, the main costs are liquidity management. The systrem is unreliable because validation happens after the fact. Unlike RippleTech which validates in about three seconds Marjan Delatinne

The current system is very lucrative for the global banking elites who take the cream from the top while our money is sat in these accounts.

But it is very costly for individuals, companies and banking institutions who are not at the top of the food chain.

Coming back to the cost, there are different figures, but in general the way that the banks work, they trap capital around the world in order to pre fund international payments. Do we still need pre funding? Is there a better way? Let me discuss XRP… Marjan Delatinne

Ripple technology allows the exact same system to operate with all the relevant checks but in a fraction of the time it normally takes.

Not to mention the vastly reduced cost of transactions, measured in pennies rather than dollars and all without pre-funded accounts.

Western Union, Dinosaurs?

We got particularly excited when we saw that Western Union came to the party to discuss blockchain tech like XRP.

Obviously some rivalry exists with Western Union and MoneyGram who partners with Ripple and uses XRP to settle transactions.

We are getting a nice balanced overview with the big picture, the new technology and what Ripple are doing, now lets hear from Western Union’s Rebecca Loevenguth who is going to give us her thoughts OECD Head Speaker

Vice president at Western Union, Rebecca Loevenguth attended the OECD Forum because sadly, the CEO could not make it…

Although she dismissed claims that XRP and digital assets will make her company a dinosaur we feel there are other reasons they seem unbothered.

Many Western Union customers who use the service are unbanked and live in areas where technological development is in its infancy.

Remittance via blockchain is very exciting & interesting topic & one that is obviously interesting to us as one of the worlds largest remittance providers Rebecca Loevenguth – VP of Transformation, Western Union

Their yearly revenue of $5.6 billion will remain largely unaffected for a few years yet unless they begin to adopt the technology or create a token of their own.

Back in 1994 Bill Gates famously said that banks would one day be taken over by technology, they were dinosaurs. Well here we are 25 years later & banks are still going strong Rebecca Loevenguth – Western Union

Clearly there are new ideas and concepts floating around Rebecca’s office, at the very same time MoneyGram is settling the same kind of payments around 10,000 times faster and for pennies instead of dollars.

Some incredibly powerful eye-openers with yesterdays conference, if global

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