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As Ripple partners with SABB, will there be positive outcomes for the Ripple Family?

Ripple partners with SABB

Last month it was announced that Saudi Arabia British Bank (SABB) is working with Ripple to offer its customers a new digital payment service that corresponds to its ‘strategic plan towards digital transformation and enriching customer experience.” This is big news, and not just for the commercial bank’s Saudi Arabia resident customers who will now have access to instant cross-border transfers via Ripple technology. It’s also significant for anyone looking to sell or buy XRP, wherever in the world they might be. That’s because the bank plans to extend the move, adding more countries and their currencies to the platform in the future. This is a major coup for Ripple itself, lending the brand, its products and services, real credibility in the world of serious finance. For SABB, the rupee is the first currency to be supported on the Ripple platform and it’s thought that the technology will make a major impact on making cross-border payments fasters, more efficient and more affordable.

So, what does this mean for those thinking of investing in the Ripple platform? It can only be a positive, because where one big bank goes, others are likely to follow. This move could be seen as part of a growing trend for both governments around the world and big financial institutions to, slowly and carefully, embrace the world of cryptocurrencies, and crypto platforms.

Currently, despite the vote of confidence from SABB, Ripple’s performance is a little unpredictable, although CEO Brad Garlinghouse must be hoping for good times ahead. Prices ranges across the Ripple portfolio with Ripple XRP gradually rising in value. Moving within a 10 cents range with an expectation of higher prices ahead. In some quarters it’s thought that when prices have gained on 34 cents and transaction sizes have grown, it will be time for traders to stock up and watch their money grow.

How does this compare to cryptocurrencies’ performances more widely? Well, broadly speaking, cryptocurrencies are rallying after a short lull in values. As a group, all digital assets currently in circulation rose to a combined value of $188 billion from $184 billion on 7th May. Ethereum is taking the lead amongst big-name cryptocurrencies, and Bitcoin currently sitting at a value of $5,963 – not its highest level but still a healthy figure.

Saudi Arabia British Bank isn’t the only bank to have embraced RippleNet. A number of financial institutions (thought to be in the triple figures) have recognised that the network’s ability to process cross-border payments in real time, with minimal costs, is their route to extending payments into new markets that would otherwise be beyond their reach. PNC, (one of the US’s largest banks), has over $6 billion in deposits and is a Ripple user.  Santander Bank, also focussed on American business, has a strategic partnership with Ripple Labs, the nature of which hasn’t been made public. Cuallix, a financial institution that is well-established in Hong Kong, the US and Mexico, partnered with Ripple in late 2017, while Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB), one of the largest banks in Sweden, offers its customers inter-company transfers between Sweden and the US via the Ripple platform.

Although it’s not possible to predict with any certainty how cryptocurrencies and their corresponding platforms will transform the world of trade and finance, there’s no doubt at this stage that they will do just that.

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