Disrupting cross-border payments.

The problems with cross-border payments have been discussed ad nauseum. They’re expensive, slow and inefficient. The major Swift hack of 2016 also called into question the security of the current system in place for cross-border payments.  The last few years have seen calls in some quarters for a new innovative settlement system.
Distributed ledger software company Ripple has its sight set on exactly that. This week, the company, which also issues the XRP cryptocurrency, announced its first bank partner that would use Ripple’s protocol for cross-border payments, as it looks to make a dent in the multi-trillion-dollar cross-border payments industry. But despite the designs of Ripple and firms like it, it will be difficult to dislodge the entrenched, bank-owned Swift network and the status quo. But, however minor, Ripple is making a start.

This article was published as part of Weekly Briefing No. 156