• Ripple has partnered with the National Bank of Kuwait on a funds transfer platform
• This comes following the announcement of a partnership with Western Union

Ripple has scored yet another major coup as the National Bank of Kuwait has unveiled the NBK Direct Remit which allows customers to make instant funds transfers.

The service is 24-hours and is available to users in Kuwait but more countries are to be added soon. Remarkably, the service was built using Ripple Net.

For now, the amount of money that can be sent using NBK Direct is limited to 2,000 KWD and there is a transaction fee of 1 KWD.

NBK and Ripple

The news of a partnership between NBK and Ripple first broke in May 2018. In October, it was announced that NBK would be adopting the Ripple platform for currency transfers.

National Bank of Kuwait is one of the biggest banks in the Middle East, with over $86.3 Billion in assets.

Ripple’s platform is also being adopted by The Saudi Arabian Monetary Authority (SAMA) to improve transfers between Saudi banks.

Adoption by institutions of this size only helps boost Ripple’s influence in the Middle East.

A year in review

2018 has certainly been a busy year for Ripple and one that was marked with multiple collaborations with powerful institutions.

Just recently, Odilon Almeida, head of  Global money transfer at Western Union, stated that the firm is working with Ripple towards exploring Western Union’s possible use of blockchain.

“This technology has a lot of applications,” he says, “you’re going to see a lot more use of this technology going forward.”

Their partnerships have expanded beyond the Middle East as in Israel, GMT, Israel’s leading financial services company with more than 250 branches across the region, has reportedly joined Ripple.

In India, Ripple is partnering with Currencies Direct, a remittance firm to make use of the Ripple platform for funds transfers.

Vivek Awasthi, chief information officer, Currencies Direct said:

“Our partnership with Ripple showcases the future of international payments and how technology can greatly improve the customer experience. When you think about the vast volumes of money that are being transferred around the world and to India specifically, it’s only right that customers have the ability to check the status of their funds at every stage.”

Ripple also had a successful pilot of their cross-border payment platform with American Express earlier this year.

All in all, 2019 is looking to have been a great year for Ripple and this can be chalked down to the fact that they have made strategic alliances with powerful firms in many regions of the world, a tactic that many of blockchain-based firms stand to benefit from.