MoneyGram Rolls Out Visa Aided Instantaneous Money Transfer Technology, Without Ripple

MoneyGram, which facilitates cross-border payments, has rolled out a new service that enables instantaneous transfer of money without involving its blockchain partner Ripple.

Of late, MoneyGram unveiled FastSend, a new facility that permits its clients to remit money in real-time to a telephone number through a custom built website or mobile app.

Notably, the latest offering from MoneyGram does not utilize Ripple’s technology.

Kamila Chytil, COO of MoneyGram, detailed that FastSend utilizes Visa’s Direct Original Credit Transaction to remit funds to bank accounts via Debit card based deposit.

While DLT technology is not utilized, the designated website and app utilize an open source cloud based micro facility. Chytil also highlighted that while Ripple has no part to play in this service, the firm uses its blockchain based systems widely in other spheres.

“Today, MoneyGram is utilizing Ripple’s On Demand Liquidity product which allows MoneyGram to trade FX at a corporate level using XRP. It’s a back-end treasury function that’s not consumer facing. The technology is helping to solve the most expensive and time consuming aspect of the current process by reducing the amount of money the company needs to park around the world, which will eventually reduce working capital needs.”

Moreover, Chytil stated that MoneyGram is also valuating other real-world use cases “where blockchain could help solve data privacy and regulatory obligations through distributed ledger technology.” On the whole, she praised DLT and cryptos, and pointed out that blockchain will lead trans-border remittance systems and other forms of money transfer.

Chytil also complemented the crypto sector for remaining proactive, unlike conventional markets, and the capability of cryptocurrencies to minimize the remittance delivery time. Finally, she stated that MoneyGram is studying numerous use cases to make the use of Ripple’s tools and is embedding the recent version of Ripple’s bouquet of tools provide cash-out facility to all participants in its ecosystem.

Ripple, which offers blockchain powered real-time gross settlement system, continues to witness a surge in adoption by finance related organizations. In February, Bangladesh-based Bank Asia, which possesses more than $3.40 billion worth assets, has associated with Ripple’s blockchain powered financial services platform RippleNet. Ripple’s crypto asset XRP yesterday hit a 7-month high of $0.33. At the time of writing this article, the cryptocurrency has lost 13% to trade at $0.2787.