Ripple is eyeing the Chinese market, aiming to use blockchain technology to quicken cross-border payments. According to a report in CNBC, citing Jeremy Light, vice president of European Union (EU) strategic accounts at Ripple, the China market is a target for the company.
“China is definitely a country and region of interest,” he said in a phone interview with CNBC.
The report noted that if Ripple does enter the Chinese market, it’s not likely to focus on pushing its own XRP cryptocurrency, given that regulators in China have been cracking down on digital tokens and banned initial coin offerings (ICO) last year.
The comments from the Ripple executive come as the company has been inking partnerships with big financial players. In late June, Spanish bank Banco Santander said that it is linking with Ripple to offer the first mobile service focused on payments rendered across borders. The service, Santander One Pay FX, allows for payments to be processed in seconds and settled the same day, a feature newly available to millions of the bank’s customers throughout the continent.
One Pay FX’s official debut comes two months after Santander said it would bring that service to market. In April, Santander had said that, in Spain, users of the service could transfer funds to the United Kingdom and the United States. In Brazil and Poland, said Santander, customers can transfer to the U.K. In illustrative use cases, users can send dollars to the U.S. and pounds to the U.K. With a nod to other fund flows, customers in the U.K. can send euros to 21 countries.
The announcement of One Pay FX and planned rollout across Europe, the company said in a release, allows speed and safety in cross-border payments, where, along traditional conduits, international transactions took three to five days to clear. The company said that the mobile-first user interface (UI) and blockchain infrastructure ties together the total cost of sending payments, embracing (beyond the total payment) bank fees, foreign exchange rates, delivery time quotes and payment receipts.
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