R3’s partnership with Mastercard to introduce its blockchain-enabled cross-border payments solution

R3 has entered Ripple’s playing field as it announced a strategic partnership with Mastercard, a leading global payments and technology company. This strategic partnership between the two is piloting a new blockchain-enabled cross-border payments solution, something that Ripple provides not only to banks but also to other Financial Institutions.

The cross-border payment solutions intend on “connecting global faster payments infrastructures, schemes and banks supported by a clearing and settlement network operated by Mastercard.” The partnership would bring Mastercard’s vast user base on-board and will address issues like high processing overheads, liquidity management and lack of standardization and processes between banks and domestic clearing systems.

According to Mastercard’s executive vice president of New Payment Platforms, Peter Klein, this partnership was central to the company’s ambition of developing a better cross-border B2B payments solution. Focusing on cross-border payment solutions, David Rutter, CEO of R3 said:

“All institutions – large or small – rely on the ability to send and receive payments, but all too often the technology they rely upon is cumbersome and expensive. Cross-border payments can be a particular pain point. Corda was designed specifically for enterprise use cases such as this, and we look forward supporting Mastercard in bringing blockchain-enabled payments businesses across the globe.”

This announcement was preceded with Mastercard joining Marco Polo Network, powered by R3’s Corda for development and working on capital finance solutions. Mastercard might have joined hands with R3, but the financial services giant has invested in a remittance company [SendFriend] that uses Ripple’s xRapid product for facilitating cross border payments, earlier this year.

Although the target group of R3 and Ripple differ for providing its services, the narrow gap appears to slowly disappear with recent partnerships. As R3 introduces new blockchain-enabled cross-border payments solution, Ripple’s global payment network encompasses over 200 banks, with its recent partnership with Pakistan-based Faysal Bank, MoneyGram, and InstaReM.