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Ripple and its blockchain technology are flourishing in the UAE and the Gulf at an exponential rate as yet another bank has announced that they are going live with Ripple’s blockchain payment solutions.
As per Navin Gupta’s [Managing Director, South Asia and MENA at Ripple] tweet, Bank of Dohfar is now live on RippleNet. He tweeted,
“Congratulations! to Bank Dhofar – Live on Ripplenet. Now Non Resident Indians (NRIs) living in Oman can App money back home in real-time. #bankdhofar #ripplenet @Ripple”
Bank of Dhofar became the first bank in the Sultanate and in the region to provide international and instantaneous transfer through mobile banking. With Bank of Dhofar’s mobile banking app, Non-Resident Indians can now transfer money to India in under two minutes.
The announcement mentions that the bank was pleased to become part of Ripple’s global enterprise blockchain network, which is RippleNet. It also mentioned,
“Ripple’s leading blockchain solution for cross-border payments, including its bi-directional messaging and instant settlement features, enables Bank of Dhofar to save customers’ time when sending payments overseas, using BankDhofar mobile banking app.”
BankDhofar and Ripple first partnered in May 2018, and the chief information officer of BankDhofar, Dr. Tariq Taha had stated,
“With this, we can provide instant, frictionless and secure cross-border money transfers within seconds, with end-to-end visibility over the journey of the payment.”
It was clear that the Bank of Dhofar wanted to help save customers’ “time and money” with the partnership, but it was then unclear as to the technology that would be used by them, which could either have been xCurrent or xRapid.
Ripple has 200+ partnerships with banks and financial institutions around the world, some of them being central banks. Ripple aims to create a global network of institutions on RippleNet using Ripple’s blockchain technologies like xRapid, xVia and xCurrent.
A Twitter user, @Edadoun, commented,
“Congratulations to you, Ripple, Oman and the region. While India has taken a cautious approach to blockchain and crypto, no doubt seeing this kind of tangible and positive impact directly on its citizens at home and abroad will help them feel more comfortable adopting.”