Ripple’s ODL Reduces Remittance Fees by 80%, Claims SendFriend CEO

David Lighton, the co-founder and chief executive of payment processing platform SendFriend, has spoken out about the impact that Ripple’s XRP payment solution has had on the company.

According to a December 12 blog post on the Ripple news deck, Lighton made an appearance at a fireside chat at Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) Connect Conference. There, he touted the efficiency of XRP, claiming that it has so far helped his company’s customers to save up to 80 percent of their remittance fees.

ODL Makes Money Transfers Easier

As Lighton put it, traditional money transfer firms usually charge up to 10 percent of the total amount being transferred from end to end. However, this percentage drops as low as 2 percent when SendFriend’s customers use XRP. He also praised On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), another payment solution from Ripple, for its ability to allow businesses to operate without working capital since they won’t need to pre-fund their accounts in foreign currencies.

SendFriend report!!!

Remittance fees is reduced by 75% with ODL using #XRP!!!#XRPCommunity#XRPTheStandard https://t.co/nKGUbWe815

— 🐼PandaRippleXRP🐼 (@RipplePandaXRP) December 13, 2019

Ripple further claimed that customers would be able to use ODL to “bridge two currencies in three seconds,” thus making way for payments to be made in quick time. Lighton added that his company has been able to use the payment tool to source liquidity on-demand, and to also cut the costs of transactions by up to 75%.

The relationship between SendFriend and Ripple began earlier this year, when the former joined the RippeNet payment network. In February, the crypto company joined the MasterCard Foundation, MIT Media Lab and Barclays in raising $1.7 million in funding for the payment company.

As it turns out, SendFriend has definitely been able to reap some significant dividends from this partnership so far. The company, which currently helps facilitate money transfers between the United States and the Philippines, initially gunned for the ability to lower remittance fees by about 65 percent lower than the industry average. An 80 percent reduction is way above company expectations.

Ripple Gains More Ground

As for Ripple, the company has been doing its bit to solidify itself as a legitimate member of the global financial services space. Late last month, global money transmission network MoneyGram announced that Ripple Labs had completed a $50 million investment commitment, which would see the crypto firm owns a 10 percent stake in its business.

https://twitter.com/schneider89marc/status/1205421506085490688

The two companies entered into a 2-year strategic partnership back in June, intending to collaborate on making seamless cross-border payments and foreign exchange settlements through digital assets.

MoneyGram is also using the ODL product, thus allowing users to send money in one currency and instantly settle it in the destination currency. By partnering into the long-term, Ripple chief executive Brad Garlinghouse claimed that they would be helping MoneyGram as the company expands into Europe and Australia.

“Digital assets and blockchain technology have the potential to make a tremendous impact on cross-border payments — MoneyGram and Ripple is an example of that […] In June, we announced this partnership, and it’s encouraging to see the rapid growth and benefits come to life.”