According to a report on Tuesday, The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) has now joined Ripple’s blockchain-based payments network, RippleNet. After signing the co-operation agreement with Ripple, NBE, which happens to be Egypt’s biggest bank by total assets, claims to be the first bank in the country to use blockchain technology. The bank is seeking to achieve a seamless and cheaper cross-border payments through RippleNet.

This partnership will significantly increase the mainstream adoption of RippleNet since Egypt is among the top five recipient remittance countries. According to figures from the world bank, migrants sent $21 billion worth of funds to Egypt in 2018 alone.

As it stands now, it is not clear whether NBE will utilize RippleNet’s On-Demand Liquidity solution, which utilizes XRP for processing remittances.

Aside NBE, several other financial firms have partnered with Ripple. Remittance giants like MoneyGram and International Money Express and fintech firm Finastra, among others, have all partnered with Ripple.

Ripple recently announced that it has crossed 300 customers and has achieved 10 times year-over-year growth in transactions on RippleNet.

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