Ever since Ripple was released, the project has continued to amass a string of serious partnerships with financial institutions and banks. Throughout the majority of their early years, Ripple was largely ignored due to its affiliation with the traditional banking industry, which drove fears of centralization.

However, in 2019, Ripple is extremely hard to ignore and is seemingly unstoppable now that institutions such as the World Bank, IMF and EU Commission have all created partnerships with the project.

Creating partnerships with the aforementioned institutions is a very strong sign of growth which cannot be ignored. The work that Ripple is doing right now will be extremely important in setting the groundwork which will allow the other cryptocurrency projects to flourish in the years to come. So whether you love or hate Ripple, it is important to remain up-to-date with their latest collaborations, as they are helping  break down boundaries between blockchain technology and the traditional financial world. 

In addition to trying to tackle the inefficiencies involved in the remittance cross-border payment industry, Ripple is also helping ease the road to regulation by assisting and educating major financial institutions on the benefits of DLT and blockchain technologies.

Let us take a look at what some of these high-profile institutions are collaborating with Ripple to bring about.

World Bank

In March 2019, Ripple’s remittance product, xRapid, made its way to the World Bank’s official webpage. In their article, the World Bank praised blockchain technology along with the efforts made by Ripple.

They stated that remittances are more expensive in the areas they are needed the most. It is no suprise that they view DLT as having the potential to drive industry-wide changes when world remittance costs are 7% as of Q4 2018. Along with this, traditional remittance payments often take days to clear due to the nature of the banking system and the different time zones across countries.

Furthermore, the World Bank had great things to say about the xRapid pilot that was conducted in the US-Mexico corridor. They said that the financial institutions involved in this pilot had saved between 40-70% on the FX exchange rates and had driven payment times down to around 2 minutes.

International Monetary Fund (IMF)

The Chairperson of the IMF, Christine Lagarde, has been very vocal about the impact that blockchain technologies can have on the financial world. She famously stated that she believes if banks do not step up their game and adopt new technology, they are at risk at being “cannibalized” by the rest of the industry. Lagarde knows that blockchain technology will greatly help banks improve their efficiency and help reduce payment times, which will benefit both the customers and the banks themselves.

Upon invitation from Lagarde, Chris Larsen, co-founder of Ripple, was selected to be one of the people to discuss with the IMF different ways that blockchain can be used to streamline activities in the financial landscape.

The fact that the IMF is already willing to listen speaks volumes to the direction that Ripple and blockchain could take the financial industry in the future.

EU Commission

Toward the start of April 2019, the EU Commission announced the launch of the Internation Association of Trusted Blockchain Applications (INATBA).

INATABA has been founded with the objective to encourage discussion with regulators, create a global model of governance for blockchain and develop interopability standards for the entire industry.

The organization will bring together startups, SMEs, policymakers, international organizations, and regulators to support blockchain technologies in the process of becoming mainstream.

Ripple also announced that they are one of the founding members of INATABA, and they look forward to being a leading participant.

Other Leading Banks

Along with all of the aforementioned high-profile collaborations, Ripple has also managed to secure partnerships with some of the world’s leading banks, some of which have been outlined below.

PNC Bank

PNC Bank is one of the top 10 banks in the United States, with over $60 billion in deposits. In 2016, they announced a partnership with Ripple to help facilitate cross-border payments through their RippleNET framework. They took things a step further in 2018, announcing they would also be using xCurrent to help improve the speed of payments

Euro Exim Bank

Euro Exim Bank is a “Class A” registered bank in St. Lucia, with their headquarters in London. They have partnered with Ripple to provide a frictionless experience of sending money globally. They have stated that they will be using xRapid and XRP to minimize liquidity costs to help reduce cash flow restrictions.

They have also implemented xCurrent for helping with settling cross border payments with “end-to-end tracking.”

Euro Exim Bank is one of Ripple’s biggest supporters and has even devoted an entire section of their official homepage to their partnership with Ripple.

Santander Bank

Santander is a large bank with over $57 billion in deposits, 650 retail bank offices, and over 2,000 ATMs worldwide. The bank had already started to use xCurrent for their cross-border payments in November 2017, but  also announced in March 2018 that they were about to test RippleNET and other liquidity products on its blockchain.

Standard Chartered Bank

Standard Chartered provides financial and banking services throughout the UK and the rest of the world. The company employs over 87,000 people and operates in over 70 countries worldwide.

In 2016, Standard Chartered Bank partnered with Ripple to use their xCurrent product. SCB has furthered its reach with the help of Ripple technologies, allowing them to target the India-Singapore trade corridor, which is worth over $15 billion.

Other partnerships with major banks include Cuallix, Mitsubishi UFG, and Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken.

Recent Award

Ripple’s product, xRapid, also recently won the Fast Company World Changing Ideas Award 2019. Up against 2,000 other applicants, they won the award under the category “Developing World Technologies”

Conclusion

From the topics discussed above, it is apparent that Ripple is still growing at an alarming pace. The cryptocurrency has been the leader in developing high-profile partnerships with some huge corporations and entities.

At this point, with so many high-profile partnerships already established, it will take nothing short of a huge blunder to stop Ripple’s expansion.

Tell us what you think about Ripple’s high profile partnerships. Will it benefit the entire cryptocurrency industry? Or is  Ripple only interested in their own project?