The recently concluded blockchain summit in London had more than a few people in attendance with over 100 speakers. There were representatives from some of the world’s biggest firms including Citibank, Maersk, FedEx, IBM, Hyperledger and so on who all spoke on many issues regarding blockchain technology and its use as well as adoption. One of the noted speakers, however, was Marjan Delatinne, the Global Head of Banking for Ripple.
During an interview which took place on stage at the summit, Delatinne discussed Ripple as it relates to xRapid, MoneyGram, Swift, and even Facebook’s Libra.
MoneyGram
Delatinne revealed that the “most significant development for Ripple” in the last year is a huge investment in international payment platform, MoneyGram. Delatinne revealed that Ripple had committed $50 million into one of the biggest players in the global remittance business. She also revealed that Ripple’s xRapid would be integrated with MoneyGram.
xCurrent and xRapid
According to Delatinne, “xCurrent is our core product. We have more than 200 customers using it, and we sign on average three to five institutions a week.” The Ripple exec further explained that xCurrent uses the power of distributed ledger technology in “exchanging value fiat to fiat, so it’s business as usual.”
On xRapid, Delatinne explains the new platform which launched in October 2018, as a way of circumventing the normal practice of tying up trillions of dollars in certain accounts by banks simply to ensure that value exchange between these banks is run as smoothly as possible. Delatinne notes that there are about 20 financial institutions currently using xRapid and more banks are interested in blockchain and crypto.
Swift
Delatinne, before joining Ripple, had already put in a decade with Swift and was at the center of the firm’s Global Payments Innovation (GPI) service which boasts that half of its transactions are completed within 30 minutes with the longest being settled within 24 hours. Delatinne had this to say about it:
“Swift is improving dramatically, the way that the payments happen today, but it’s still about the messaging,” she said. “You still send a message to another party. I don’t call it settlement, because this is not settlement, it’s around the fact that I can send a message in a faster way, and I can track it. This is an improvement from previously, where it could take days.”
Regardless, Delatinne insists that Ripple and Swift are not rivals and the financial community can make use of both.
“We are not replacing Swift, as Swift has its own value and I think we can be very complementary. It comes back to what is best for the community and how they can take advantage of both.”
Facebook’s Libra
Speaking on the Libra, Delatinne suggests that Facebook’s entry into the cryptosphere is “great news” for the sector and “brings more credibility to this space” also adding that “the more names, the better”, referring to Facebook and also J.P, Morgan deployment of the JPM Coin.
However, Delatinne says that Facebook and its Libra have a completely different system from Ripple. She says that while Facebook is working in the consumer space where it is obviously well versed, Ripple is not directly getting in the way as it has a different niche.
“Our approach is different: we are working with the system, so we haven’t been disrupting only. We are happily working with the banks, the payment service providers and the regulators.”
