Cambridge Global, Ripple Partner On Cross-Border Payments

Cambridge Global Payments, a FLEETCOR company working on cross-border payments, has partnered with enterprise blockchain solution Ripple on a cross-border payment solution for B2B customers, according to a press release.

Using RippleNet, Ripple's global payment network, the partnership will take advantage of the ripe market for cross-border payments, which a July Juniper Research study said will be worth $35 trillion by 2022, the release stated.

In the pilot phase for the project, deposits with preferred banking partner Siam Commercial Bank saw a 99 percent reduction in time to payout with RippleNet compared with other services, the release stated. Cambridge also said there is a new degree of transparency and certainty with the new partnership.

Pat Thelen, vice president and North America managing director at Ripple, said both companies understand the necessity of using blockchain to help bolster cross-border payments.

“Given today’s realities, adding more technology options is even more critical to ensuring faster payments across the globe," Thelen said, according to the release.

Mark Frey, president of Cambridge Global Payments, said the opportunity to boost efficiency and speed was too good to pass up, opposed to old ways in which traditional systems involved many lethargic intermediaries that slowed payments down, the release stated.

“We entered into the relationship with Ripple because it presented Cambridge a great opportunity to use distributed ledger technology to reduce the amount of time it takes for customers to pay their overseas vendors,” he said, according to the release. “By expanding this relationship, we broaden our reach into the Asia-Pacific region, while providing customers the rapid payment delivery they expect.”

This isn't Ripple's first foray into cross-border payments. The firm has also worked with the National Bank of Fujairah PJSC (NBF) in order to enable them. Now, bank clients can make easy, secure payments via Ripple and have access to a higher quality of payments than they were previously used to, the companies said of the partnership.