Spanish banking giant Santander group, is expanding its use of Ripple’s technology. The bank is reportedly putting in place a “payment corridor” that would let customers in Latin America send money to the U.S instantly for free via One Pay FX, a mobile app that uses Ripple’s xCurrent software.
At the moment, sending money the US through One Pay FX is only available to customers in the U.K and Spain. The bank is yet to reveal what Latin American countries would be served by the “payment corridor and how many. We do know though that the bank already serves customers in Brazil, Uruguay, Mexico, and Chile.
The bank introduced this One Pay FX offering to four countries that contribute to half of the bank’s profits last year. These countries include Poland, Brazil, Spain and the U.K, which are all fast countries as far as cross-border payments are concerned.
According to the bank, this payment offering is gaining a lot of admirers. The CEO of One Pay FX Cedric Menager certainly agrees after noting an uptick in cross-border payment activity through the service. Menager said;
“Customers who were not doing international transfers are now using the service, customers who were using international transfer are now doing it more, and customers who had gone to use fintech competition have come back because of the One Pay offering”
He went on to highlight the difference between what banks have traditionally used for payments, and what the Xcurrent powered system is currently providing.
“Unlike the SWIFT messaging system that banks traditionally have used to make international transfers, xCurrent is instant, has no fees and gives users a view into currency exchange rates before they send money”
Though Santander group is yet to reveal the transaction volumes for One Pay FX, it said that volumes had tripled from January 2019 through to June. According to One Pay CEO Cedric Menager, expanding to Latin America will help give customers in those countries more payment options.
“The international payment experience in the Latin American markets is even less evolved than in the European markets,” he said. “There are even parts of the Latin American market where it’s almost impossible to do an online international payment.”
The bank also plans to expand this payment corridor into the U.S. this will give U.S customers the ability to send money abroad instantly and free. The bank has not yet set a time line for the launch of the service though.
The launch of the One Pay FX payment corridor in Latin America will change lives. It will save the user’s time of having to visit bank branches for international payments that take days to get to the recipient. Latin American users will now be able to make instant, and free cross-border payments online.
Image Courtesy of fundera.com
