According to an announcement published on December 27, NBK (National Bank of Kuwait) has launched a product for remittance specifically for cross-border reparations based on RippleNet’s blockchain technology. NBK was established in the year 1952 and is the largest financial firm in Kuwait. The bank has over $86.3 billion worth of assets according to the banks 2017 annual report.
“NBK Direct Remit”, A product of NBC is the first ever financial institution in Kuwait focussing on remittance based on RippleNet’s blockchain technology. The product will supposedly speed up the entire process of cross-border money transfers.
The Deputy CEO of the bank, Dimitrios Kokosioulis said in one of his statements that the blockchain based solution allows their customers to ‘make money transfers within seconds’ and ‘any time of the day.’ He further said that this service will also be made available in Jordan, gradually expanding to various other countries.
CIMB is a Malaysian based group holding Bhd. It also a lending giant in the country. This group intends to integrate Ripple’s XCurrent product which is essentially a software solution for facilitating cross-border payments, for its remittance product. In the same month that this happened, Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, A Japanese firm said that it would use the company will use Ripple in order to create a cross-border payments service in Brazil by collaborating with Banco Bradesco.
The project intends to ‘assist the banks as they work toward commercialising a high-speed, transparent and traceable cross-border payments solution between Japan and Brazil.’Ripple launched a settlement platform in the month of October. This is a real-time based platform called xRapid designed for commercial use. xRapid aims at speeding up international payments and eliminating the use of Nostro accounts.
