Azimo and SCB partner up to bring RippleNet to Thailand

Azimo, a digital money transfer service, recently revealed a new partnership with Siam Commercial Bank (SCB). This is the oldest bank in Thailand, and the two decided to partner up to deliver cross-border payments service to the country.

The two plan to do this by using Ripple's global payments network, RippleNet, which uses XRP.

The new partnership will solve remittance issues in Thailand

Ripple announced the new solution came only days ago, on April 9th. It promises to solve the modern challenges of lengthy, unreliable, and expensive international transactions. The new platform which will serve for sending and delivering money will connect Thailand and Europe. Any future transaction that goes via the platform will settle in seconds.

Prior to the new solution, remittances coming from Europe to Thailand usually took one or more business days to settle. Now, thanks to Azimo and RippleNet, this will possible almost instantly. Azimo's executive chairman and co-founder, Michael Kent, said that many countries have already started using this method.

He stated that: “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.”

Partnership with Ripple to help Thailand and surrounding countries

The World Bank's data shows that Thailand is one of the largest remittance destinations around the globe. The country receives around $6.7 billion in remittance per year. However, it is also among the most expensive countries for money transactions.

This will change rather quickly, now that Azimo launched RippleNet's ODL service. The partnership with the bank actually came very quickly after the launch. Azimo's launch of ODL comes as part of the firm's expansion to the Philippines. However, it won't stop there, as it also plans expansion to several other countries in months to come.

Meanwhile, SCB also entered a partnership with Ripple. The bank did this to create a new blockchain-based mobile app. The app would also allow users to send and receive money internationally, at low cost and with high speeds.