Saudi British Bank Launches a Ripple Backed Cross-Border Transfer Service

Ripple has been trying their best to get XRP adopted. Ripple has partnered with different banks and even with companies like Western Union. One area that makes Ripple’s XRP stand out is cross border payments. Given the cost plus the amount of time needed in order to complete a cross border transaction, Ripple’s XRP offers a fast and affordable solution. Ripple has even targeted countries that have been reliant on remittances such as the Philippines.

Now, the Saudi British Bank (SABB) adopted Ripple’s blockchain technology. They launched an instant cross-border transfer service that is backed by Ripple. This is another big step towards mass adoption for XRP. SABB is a stock company from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. British bank HSBC Holdings PLC owns a minor stake at this bank. Among the things offered by SABB include investment banking and commercial banking.

The cross-border transfer service was announced on April 24-25 during the Financial Sector Conference in Riyadh. This is a strategy by the bank in order to go after digital technology that can improve overall customer experience. According to Majed Najm who is the Deputy Managing Director Corporate and Institutional Banking at SABB, “SABB provides its customers with faster, safer, and more transparent cross-border payment services by the launch of blockchain technology through Ripple”. He also added that “The Indian Rupee (INR) is a positive start to an upcoming roadmap being the first currency to be activated in SABB. This plan aims to provide customers with a valuable service and link more countries and currencies in the near future”.

Najm also mentioned that this is an effort of the company in order to reduce the time and effort on the part of the customers. He said that “This is also to maintain leading position in achieving the ambitions of the Bank’s customers whether in the retail or corporate sector, and to support SABB’s vision to be leading global bank in the Kingdom”.

Financial Institutions and XRP

According to Christine Lagarde who is the IMF Managing Director, she made a statement recently saying that “The role of the disruptors and anything that is using ledger technology…is clearly shaking the system”. She added that “we don’t want innovation that would shake the system so much that we would lose the stability that is needed”.

She, however, endorsed Ripple in the past. She said that “That is where I see changes happening now. If you think of Circle, and Ripple and all those, that’s where they are active and helpful”.

The difference between Ripple and Bitcoin is that the former is adaptable to regulations. On the other hand, Bitcoin remains against the systems that exist. However, there are still a lot of regulatory problems faced by Ripple’s XRP. There were even lawsuits against Ripple saying that they sold investors unregistered security.

The good news though is that there are lawmakers that are trying to identify what cryptocurrencies are. There is a bill that aims to clarify whether or not a cryptocurrency is a security or not. Ripple has been one of those that have called for extra regulations. According to Ryan Zagone of Ripple, this can potentially attract more institutional investors.