Money transfer giant Western Union has confirmed that it is experimenting with blockchain technology in collaboration with Ripple.
Western Union Chief Executive Officer Hikmet Ersek told Bloomberg:
“We are looking especially in the processing settlement and working capital optimization, also in the regulation part, on the compliance part on the blockchain capabilities. And we do test, we do have some tests with Ripple.”
A number of banking majors have joined the Ripple network to enable instant, seamless and real-time payments. RippleNet, Ripple’s enterprise blockchain network, currently counts over 100 banks and financial institutions as its members.
Earlier this year, MoneyGram also partnered with Ripple to use XRP token in its payment flows through xRapid, Ripple’s on-demand liquidity product. According to Ripple, xRapid enables real-time foreign exchange settlement through XRP, which gives financial institutions the ability to unlock liquidity and access multiple corridors with one pre-funded originating account.
Commenting on the blockchain trial with Western Union, Ripple told Bloomberg:
“We’ve been testing different products with Western Union for a while. We’re excited about our work towards a pilot implementation of xRapid, which uses XRP in payment flows.”
