- The head of global banking at Ripple explained in an interview that the company is currently actively working on the development of an ODL and thus XRP-based payment corridor for Brazil.
- Brazil could be the springboard for Ripple’s ODL’s expansion into other Latin American countries such as Chile, Peru and Argentina.
There has long been speculation that Ripple could expand into Brazil with its On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) payment solution. Currently, Ripple’s partner banks in Brazil use only the RippleNet. However, as Marjan Delatinne, head of global banking at Ripple, revealed a few days ago in an interview with Future of Finance on YouTube, this could soon change.
Delatinne explained that Brazil is at the heart of Ripple’s business strategy for Latin America and that the company is currently actively working on the development of an ODL and thus XRP based payment corridor for the country. When describing the advantages of ODL compared to the traditional nostro/vostro system, she said:
We extend these services now to more and more corridors typically exotic corridors with lots of challenges, like [the]Philippines [and]very soon within Brazil, so let’s say there is a big agenda and roadmap on that.
Delatinne continued in her statement that Ripple’s focus is on creating a cross-border payment solution that dynamically provides liquidity rather than using pre-funded accounts for each target country. This, according to Delatinne, will simplify the lives of its customers and banks and facilitate the processing of cross-border payments.
Delatinne’s announcement also explains why Ripple met with the Central Bank of Brazil in late May. As reported by CNF, there was a non-public online meeting where Ripple’s executives spoke with the president of the Brazilian central bank to discuss digitization in banking. Presumably the meeting was about clarifying legal and logistical issues.
Already at the end of last year, Luiz Antonio Sacco, the head of Ripple Brazil, stated that the country could be the springboard for the Latin American expansion of Ripple and its XRP based payment solution ODL. At the time, Sacco noted that, in addition to Brazil, Ripple is also looking to expand into other South American countries such as Chile, Peru and Argentina.
Ripple’s expansion favored by Coronavirus
Delatinne also stated that the company expects the outbreak of the coronavirus to drive digitization in the banking sector and demand for digital payments. Ripple’s senior vice president, Asheesh Birla, also confirmed this statement on the company’s official website a few days ago, pointing out the expansion plans for the XRP based payment solution:
Ripple is on track to open new ODL corridors this year and we’re onboarding new customers and working with existing customers to ramp up ODL volume in important corridors including USD-MXN, USD-PHP, AUD-USD and PHP, and from EUR-USD.
Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse also spoke earlier this week about Ripple’s achievements for XRP and ODL. Garlinghouse reported that Ripple signed 28 new production contracts for ODL in the first quarter of 2020. Except Brazil, however, it is unclear in which other countries or corridors Ripple will start operating ODL in the short term.