By
Godfrey Benjamin
April 17th, 2024
The large community of Thailand nationals in South Korea can now remit funds through the platform powered by the GME and RippleNet.
Global Money Express Co. Ltd (GME) is joining the RippleNet network to “accelerate and scale payments” from South Korea into Thailand. Through this initiative, the major remittance firm will also link with Siam Commercial Bank, Thailand’s largest bank by market capitalization. GME Remittance believes that the RippleNet platform enables it to hook up with the pool of existing customers on the network. The money transfer company says this will also aid expansion into “additional remittance corridors” across Asia. In addition, it is also looking to scale remittances on a global scale, particularly in the United States and Europe.
Speaking on the development, Subash Chandra Poudel, Director and COO at GME Remittance, “We chose Ripple as our partner because with RippleNet we can launch into new countries with new partners within 1-2 weeks”. The director further stated that, “This has drastically reduced the time to market and provides us with an edge compared to our competitors”. He concluded by pointing out how secure and transparent the platform was, saying all transactions were tracked every step of the way.
The partnership is established by SBI Ripple Asia, a joint venture between SBI Holdings and Ripple. It seeks to facilitate payments from about 184,000 Thailand nationals living in South Korea. The Thai population in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula is the third-largest after Chinese and Vietnamese nationals.
The RippleNet deal enables GME Remittance to join an existing roster of Korean money transfer companies and financial institutions that use the network. They include Sentbe, CROSS ENF, WireBarley, and Hanpass. Some of these companies already serve the remittance corridor between South Korea and Thailand.
RippleNet Will Help the South Korea and Thailand Corridor
Ripple says it is focusing on Asia Pacific, its fastest-growing region by transactions due to strong consumer momentum. According to the company, there is a 130% YoY growth in recorded transactions, primarily from existing RippleNet customers. The company expects this growth to continue as the region presents more business opportunities.
According to Emi Yoshikawa, Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Operations at Ripple:
“The remittance corridors requiring high-performance payments to this region are growing exponentially — with people needing to send money round the clock, even on holidays or weekends”.
She further commented on the mutually beneficial partnership with GME Remittance. Yoshikawa said that Ripple is excited about partnering with a major payments service provider like GME Remittance. She believes that the partnership will offer a great customer experience and help the companies expand into new markets.
Furthermore, the exchange and remittance platform believes the current global payment systems used by traditional financial firms are obsolete and prone to errors. Ripple also states that the blockchain technology around its own network offers turnkey solutions and is more effective.
RippleNet is a solution that uses blockchain technology for banks and finance-oriented businesses. Its network looks to help partners and users across the globe accelerate and scale up their businesses.