The digital money transfer platform Azimo has collaborated with the Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) to introduce a cross border payments service between Europe and Thailand, through Ripple’s global payments network RippleNet.
Ripple announced that, through this solution, it aims to solve the long-lasting problem of unreliable global payments. It claimed that once the system is in place, transactions between European countries and Thailand will be processed in less than a minute. Before this, remittances between Europe and Thailand used to take more than a day to be settled.
Michael Kent, Azimo’s co-founder and executive chairman commented, “More and more countries are going to instant payment. Thailand recently launched its instant payment network, and this partnership with the largest bank in the country allows us to get the time to settle payments down from around 24 hours to an average of 22 seconds. [It’s] faster to send money to Thailand than to someone else in Europe”.
Families shouldn’t have to wait to receive payments from overseas.
By making new connections and expanding remittance capabilities, #RippleNet customers like @Azimo and @scb_thailand are changing the status quo. https://t.co/4CQ5cwiN1U
— Ripple (@Ripple) April 9, 2020
According to reports from the World Bank, Thailand alone receives $6.7 billion worth remittances per year. Moreover, it is also pretty expensive to send and receive money from Thailand. So, Ripple’s latest partnership does make sense, giving businesses in Thailand an opportunity to process instant transactions at a low cost.
Not long ago, Azimo partnered with Ripple to use its On-Demand Liquidity service as a part of its strategic expansion into the Philippines. In its recent announcement, Ripple stated, “People can’t and shouldn’t wait days or even weeks to receive payments from loved ones. RippleNet and ODL are allowing financial institutions to process global payments at unprecedented speed, changing the status quo. By making new connections and expanding services like Azimo’s partnership with SCB, Ripple customers are able to deliver the best experience in cross-border payments today”.
