SendFriend Uses XRP to Save Customers Up to 80% In Remittance Fees
Talking to a Ripple’s Sr. Director of Product, Ginger Baker, SendFriend CEO, David Lighton, described how their international money transfer app utilizes blockchain technology and XRP to provide less expensive and timesaving remittance service to the public in the U.S.
David Lighton said in an interview at the Ripple’s University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) Connect Conference that:
Our goal is to pass on these savings to our customers. What that means is companies like Western Union can charge up to 10% to service a payment—we can get it done for 2%.
Lighton described Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL), as “bridge two currencies in three seconds,” which also removes the need for working capital as companies do not need to pre-fund their accounts pre-in destinations currencies. Ripple’s ODL product, enables SendFriend to source liquidity on-demand and cut transaction costs said Lighton, adding that:
What’s fabulous about blockchain and what Ripple’s product brings to the table is that you remove the need for that working capital. We can now source liquidity, on-demand and depress those transaction costs by up to 75%,
SendFriend currently serves the Philippines, enabling people in the country to send and receive money from abroad.
There are four big markets in the world for remittances: India, China, Philippines and Mexico. The Philippines by far are the most forward thinking. I think the regulators have done a great job by not having aggressive capital controls…
The company began using the ODL payment solution that is backed by digital asset XRP earlier this year. Companies such as Barclays, MasterCard as well as Ripple have all invested in SendFriend in 2019. Their collective investment figure stands at $1.7 million.
Lighton, also acknowledged that current high remittance fees are “such a serious problem that number ten of the Sustainable Development Goals has a target of bringing the cost of remittance payments down to three percent by 2030.” According to Lighton as e-commerce companies expand globally, there is a growing demand for foreign currency to fulfill orders and that is the market SendFriend wants to focus on.
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