RippleNet member and fintech platform NIUM is in the news today after it announced a partnership with a payment technology company, Geoswift. According to the official press release, this deal would essentially connect China to the rest of the world, meaning, this would potentially enable NIUM customers leveraging RippleNet to remit money into China. Additionally, real-time services applicable to 14 banks in China including Bank of China, Bank of Shanghai, and the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, among others.
The press release further said that consumers and businesses can conduct fund transfers easily through Ripple partner InstaRem, NIUM’s consumer and SME brand, on its website or app. Welcoming the development, Raymond Qu, CEO & Founder of Geoswift, said,
“The partnership with NIUM is a natural extension of our strategy to become one of the leading providers of instant P2P payments solution. In order to fulfill the ever-growing business and customer demands for instant money movement into China, we will continue to offer our clients fast, safe and more convenient payment options with their business partners, friends and family.”
China’s remittance market
The Asia-Pacific region’s digital remittance market registered $49.85 billion in 2018. This region is expected to generate around $269.78 billion in remittances by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 23.5% from 2019 to 2026. As revealed by Allied Market Research, China was the highest contributor with over 1/4th of the total share of the Asia-Pacific digital remittance market in 2018. This trend is expected to remain intact with China maintaining the streak of being the highest contributor by 2026.
In the report, key players of the region’s digital remittance market included InstaReM, Flywire, Remitly, Inc., Azimo Limited, SingX Pte Ltd., TransferWise Ltd., WorldRemit Ltd., MoneyGram, Ripple, and TNG Wallet. Chinese market players have been focusing on the launch of electronic cross-border remittance services. Besides, the growth of digital remittance in China due to lower fees imposed by service providers has made the money transfer process much more feasible than the traditional method.
Ripple’s tap
Ripple has witnessed a substantial increase in activity in its ODLs across various corridors. Its ODL for the Australian corridor has been gaining significant traction as the Liquidity Index for BTC Markets XRP/AUD vaulted past 14.3 million. Ripple has also been quite keen on remittance developments in Asia with partnerships such as Thailand’s DeeMoney.
Another partnership was forged with Malaysian firm, MoneyMatch, a firm that offers cross-border remittances to more than 120 countries via RippleNet. In addition, Thailand’s oldest financial institution, Siam Commercial Bank, partnered with Azimo to offer international remittances using RippleNet.
Interestingly, RippleNet member, NIUM is the first in the region to offer corridors from North and South America into a number of destinations in Southeast Asia. This new partnership deal opens a lot of avenues for Ripple to leverage the growing Chinese remittance market, a country whose remittances stood roughly at over $67 billion.
