Ripple Signs New Partnership Deal With Saudi Arabia

Ripple has announced their partnership with The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) to help banks in the nation improve their payments infrastructure.

The newly formed partnership will allow several banks from the Middle Eastern nation to use Ripple’s xCurrent technology to improve domestic and international transactions. Following the Bank of England, SAMA is the second central bank to partner with Ripple in a bid to use the blockchain-powered remittance system to improve everyday dealings.

Although many associate Ripple with the XRP cryptocurrency, the company largely focuses on introducing new methods of currency exchange, remittance and similar financial services. Ripple’s announcement called the partnership ground-breaking and confirmed that SAMA is the first central bank to launch a pilot program of this size.

Meanwhile, Ripple also announced a new partnership with Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank (NCB). NCB is one of the largest banks in the country commanding a market capitalization of around $120 billion.

Benefits Of NCB’s Partnership With Ripple

 One of the benefits of the merger is that NCB’s client will now be able to access different credit or financial services and facilities offered by global banks within the RTXP.

At the same time, businesses depending on NCB for funding shall have access to fast settlements and transparency thanks to the underlying blockchain technology that link the financial institutions. NCB plans to kick-start this initiative by forging a partnership with several Singaporean financial institutions before later linking them with their North American counterparts via the RTXP.

Saudi Arabia’s Regulator SAMA xCurrent Pilot Program

The successful pilot program between SAMA and Ripple would see several banks like the NCB test Ripple’s xCurrent.

The groundbreaking program allows banks to make use of xCurrent in order to improve their overall efficiency especially when sending or receiving money in the country as they simultaneously reduce the cost of operation and doing away with latency. Other than inherent perks, SAMA could also properly monitor banks within the RTXP network thereby easing the usually tasking oversight.