Ripple announced that one of the leading non-bank remittance service providers in South Korea – Global Money Express Co. LTD (GME Remittance) – had joined its network. As a result, the financial institution can now connect to Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) and initiate payments between South Korea and Thailand.
GME Looking to Expand
According to an announcement, GME Remittance has joined the blockchain-based digital payment network – Ripple. The collaboration enabled the South Korean service provider to connect with Thailand’s leading bank – Siam Commercial Bank (SBI).
The initiative would accelerate and scale payments between the two countries as more than 180,000 Thai nationals currently reside in South Korea. Ripple reminded that GME Remittance is not the first Korean company to join its network as CROSS ENF and Sentbe have already built financial bridges with Thailand.
Subash Chandra Poudel stated that GME’s goal is to reach Siam Commercial Bank and expand its operations in Europe and the USA. Additionally, he praised Ripple’s network as a fast and transparent way to send money across borders:
“We chose Ripple as our partner because with RippleNet we can launch into new countries with new partners within 1-2 weeks. This has drastically reduced the time to market and provides us with an edge compared to our competitors.”
In her turn, Emi Yoshikawa – Vice President of Corporate Strategy and Operations at Ripple – noted that people have the necessity “to send money round the clock, even on holidays or weekends.” She highlighted that the initiative would make this process much more accessible:
“The remittance corridors requiring high-performance payments to this region are growing exponentially… We’re pleased to partner with a leading payments service provider like GME Remittance to deliver a superior customer experience while accelerating their expansion into new markets as they connect with our existing network of established partners on RippleNet.”
Ripple’s Ambitions in Thailand
As CryptoPotato reported last year, Ripple expanded its services in South-East Asia by partnering with a Thailand-based fintech company called DeeMoney. By using RippleNet, the Thai firm would provide financial settlements to all local bank accounts on the same day.
It is worth noting that most payments are initiated from Israel, Indonesia, Singapore, South Korea, the Middle East, and the Gulf region, where more than a million Thais live and transfer lots of money back home.
Several months later, Ripple and Thailand’s oldest bank – Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) – joined forces to launch a mobile application called SCB EASY for cross-border payments. The move could be highly beneficial for Thais as 67% of the population answered in a study that they prefer mobile apps payments rather than physical ones.
