- Mobile Money and bKash will work with the blockchain-powered finance company Ripple to craft a new payment and remittance corridor between Bangladesh and Malaysia.
- Ripple, which is currently under investigation by the US Securities and Exchange Commission, said that the move would help “transform” the payments market in the South East Asia region.
- The new service will be wallet-to-wallet in nature, allowing the money to go between digital currency accounts.
Blockchain-powered cross-border payments provider Ripple has revealed a new move in the Asian market.
The firm said that it has struck up a series of partnerships with firms in the region to create a new online money transfer corridor between Malaysia and Bangladesh.
In Malaysia, it will work alongside a firm called Mobile Money.
In Bangladesh, it will work with the company bKash.
Bangladesh is believed to have the region’s third biggest remittances market.
The new service will be wallet-to-wallet in nature, which means that it will allow money to flow between one digital currency account and another.
It will be powered by RippleNet, a worldwide payments service fuelled by distributed ledger technology (DLT), which is the technical architecture behind the blockchain.
Another firm, Mutual Trust Bank, will take the payment made via RippleNet and turn it into cash for settlement purposes.
A senior figure at bKash described the new move as a way of boosting convenience for users on both ends of the transaction.
Kamal Quadir, who is the chief executive officer of bKash, said that the Bangladeshi economy was likely to be boosted by the news.
“This partnership will bring great convenience to both the recipients and senders, and contribute further to our national economy by encouraging inward foreign remittance flow through legal channels,” he was quoted as saying.
A leader in the region at Ripple also expressed a positive outlook on the news.
Navin Gupta, who is the managing director for South Asia and the Middle East and North Africa region, predicted that there would be a transformation in payments for people there.
“As Ripple is bolstering our presence in South Asia, we are excited to contribute to the infrastructure of the region to transform the way cross-border payments are executed,” he said.
The move comes against a backdrop of legal and regulatory problems for Ripple.
Late last year, the firm was told by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that it was under investigation in a row over allegedly unregistered securities offerings.
It is accused of not following US security registration laws during the promotion of its cryptocurrency XRP.
The company itself was charged with the claims, which were laid in December.
Two leading figures at the firm, Chris Larsen and Brad Garlinghouse, were also charged.
The company denies the allegations made against it.
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