Credit Agricole and TransferGo are among the latest financial services firms to join Ripple's enterprise blockchain network, which now claims more than 100 users.
RippleNet promises to help banks break free from the entrenched infrastructure of global payments, slashing the time and cost of settlement while enabling new types of high-volume, low-value transactions.
In just five years, Ripple has won over dozens of major players, with many now moving beyond pilots to commercial deployments. For example, SEB has already processed more than $180 million in payments for a large corporate customer between Sweden and the US, with transactions taking just seconds to complete.
Now, a host of new customers are set to begin testing the network. UAE-based Rakbank and UK-based payment providers IFX, TransferGo, and Currencies Direct will use RippleNet to power instant payments into India — the largest beneficiary of retail remittances worldwide at $71 billion annually.
Meanwhile, Credit Agricole plans to improve remittance services from Switzerland — home of the largest group of French expatriates worldwide — to France, while Brazil-based Bexs Banco has joined RippleNet to connect with member banks in North America, Europe and Asia.
And in a first, Cuallix plans to pilot Ripple's digital asset, XRP, as a liquidity tool to lower the costs of payments from the US to Mexico.
Brad Garlinghouse, CEO, Ripple, says: "Global payments are undeniably going through a sea change, led by financial institutions adopting blockchain to fix their customers’ broken payments experience.
"Now more than 100 financial institutions are looking to Ripple as the solution to the problem. Updating their payments infrastructure with Ripple has become the equivalent of a retailer choosing to build an e-commerce business in the year 2000 — it’s a no brainer."