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0 CommentsNational Bank of Egypt and UAE Financial Service Provider Set to Leverage Decentralized Payments Network RippleNet
The National Bank of Egypt (NBE) has partnered with Ripple (XRP) to establish a cross-border payments corridor with the United Arab Emirates via RippleNet, according to a press release published on Tuesday.
“Egypt ranks amongst the top five countries worldwide in terms of remittances received from its overseas expatriate communities,” explained Hesham Elsafty, group head for financial institutions and international financial services at NBE, in the announcement, writes Cryptoslate.
He added that international remittances play a very important role in the Egyptian economy, thus the bank is “continuously aiming to develop and enhance the infrastructure which pertains to this line of business.” Just last year, the country received $24 billion in remittances.
Ripple prowess
Per the announcement, the partnership will allow NBE to connect with UAE-based financial services provider LuLu International Exchange via RippleNet, a blockchain-based network of institutional payment providers.
Pivoting to the decentralized technology, NBE and LuLu aim to remedy some of the “inherent friction” within the traditional payments infrastructure, making cross-border payments “cheaper, quicker and more reliable.”
“NBE’s partnership with Ripple will help to improve overall efficiency by enabling NBE to establish new alliances across wider markets with reduced cost and quicker integration time,” Elsafty added.
“By unlocking the full potential of the UAE-Egypt corridor, the partnership will help deliver a reliable, seamless and accessible cross-border payments solution for the Egyptian community and businesses in the UAE,” concluded managing director of LuLu Financial Group Adeeb Ahamed.
What is Ripple? Ripple is a real-time gross settlement protocol, currency exchange and money transfer system. The protocol supports tokens representing fiat currencies, cryptocurrencies, commodities, and / or other assets. Ripple was created as an alternative settlement method for the banking system, not as an alternative to fiat money and the traditional banking system.
