By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 15th, 2024
National Bank of Kuwait has joined Ripple’s blockchain-based payments network seeking faster cross-border money transfers. The bank announced the launched of the new remittance service, that enables “immediate” payments using Ripple tech.
The service is launching with a remittance corridor to Jordan only, but is expected to expand to more countries in the near future, the bank said in a statement. NBK has a presence in China, Geneva, London, Paris, New York, and Singapore, and regionally in Lebanon, Jordan, Egypt, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Iraq, Turkey and UAE.
Dmitrios Kokosioulis, the deputy CEO-group operations and technology said:
“Focused on digital transformation, NBK has previously launched successful and innovative products that serve different segments, including the NBK Tap & Pay, QuickPay, NBK SelfiePay, cardless cash withdrawal, Biometric Cards, in addition to the continuous enhancements to the NBK Mobile Banking App and other services that make our customer’s banking experience an enjoyable one.
This service is a significant achievement as it enables our customers to make money transfers within seconds, easily and at their convenience anytime of the day.”
He further announced that NBK Direct Remit will also be made available in Jordan and soon will be expanded to other countries.
Marcus Treacher, SVP of Customer Success at Ripple, said:
“The National Bank of Kuwait (NBK) is an important partner in the region, and we’re excited that they have begun moving live payments across our blockchain network on behalf of their customers.”
NBK is charging a fee of 1 Kuwaiti dinars ($3.29) per transaction for Jordan transfers if funds are sent to its local branch. For customers using other banks, it will levy 5 KWD ($16.47) per transaction. The default limit for transactions is capped at 2,000 KWD ($6,586).
In the original announcement of NBK on Twitter, it stated:
“For the first time in Kuwait: Send money instantly with NBK Direct Remit. Log in to NBK Online Banking using RippleNet’s Blockchain technology. NBK Direct Remit is currently available for Jordan. “
This is not the first victory touched by Ripple and XRP in 2018. Recently, the company released a series of 2018 breakthroughs where it discussed all its establishments and accomplishments, be it in the form of adoption or in the field of academics, research and development.
2018 has certainly been a busy year for Ripple and one that was marked with multiple collaborations with powerful institutions.
Just recently, Odilon Almeida, head of Global money transfer at Western Union, stated that the firm is working with Ripple towards exploring Western Union’s possible use of blockchain.
He said:
“This technology has a lot of applications. You’re going to see a lot more use of this technology going forward.”
Their partnerships have expanded beyond the Middle East as in Israel, GMT, Israel’s leading financial services company with more than 250 branches across the region, has reportedly joined Ripple.
Ripple Plans More Business Done With Regulatory Clarity
In the most recent episode of The Ripple Drop, the company has highlighted a few of the key success stories and products that the year 2018 witnessed in the Ripple and XRP ecosystem. Marcus Treacher and Ashish Birla were featured in the episode, speaking of the important milestones that the blockchain achieved in 2018. Treacher had mentioned the One Pay FX, a payment service by Santander as “creating a true global network… to bring the internet of value to life”.
Birla has mentioned xCurrent and xRapid systems as his picks for the year, touting the two working in conjunction to provide services globally.
For 2019, Birla suggested that the goal was to bring xRapid into more specific corridors with regulatory clarity and a need for solving a big pain point for a customer base.
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