US Financial Giant Ready For Ripple Pilot

The cryptocurrency has had a bout of deep interest from Financial Institutions but the continuous fluctuations in price and the ups and downs seem to have made some of the bigger institutions steer clear of the industry. Nevertheless, there is some good news which comes from Western Union, especially for Ripple followers.

As Western Union’s Global Money Transfers General Manage, Asia Pacific, Molly Shea said in a recent podcast with Analyseasia:

“We’re piloting some settlement tests with Ripple for certain corridors, the US Dollar and the Mexican peso is one example..learning about possible opportunities.. the options that we choose need to be legitimate and widely acceptable for consumer use”.

Shea told this to the audience when she was asked about her views towards blockchain and its applications to remittances while assuring the listeners that fiat, physical, currency isn’t going anywhere any time soon. Shea said that the cryptocurrency space is still growing and that it is about staying in tune about the technological advancement to know its application for what you need.

Shea said, “we have made an investment in a digital currency group. It’s a fund that finds industry-leading insights into blockchains and cryptocurrency space.”

Odilon Almeida of Western Union Global Money Transfer spoke in a recent interview with Reuter Plus where he stated that the company is “ready to adopt any kind of currency”. This has the potential to include cryptocurrency.

In addition to this, Almeida stated that there isn’t much difference between regular digital payments and cryptocurrency. Following on from this, he said that the company’s long-term stance makes them very prepared to launch any type of currency which includes blockchain based currencies too. According to AMB Crypto, Almeida said:

“We already operate with 130 currencies. If one day we feel like it is the right strategy to introduce cryptocurrencies to our platform, technology-wise, it’s just one more currency. I think cryptocurrencies may become one more option of currency or assets around the globe to be exchanged between people and businesses. If that happens, we would be ready to launch.”

With Western Union and the xRapid system from Ripple slowly working towards faster cross-border payments, this pilot settlement tests could go a long way it getting to this milestone.