After initially banning digital currency exchanges and launching a campaign against cryptocurrencies, Western Union(WU) has confirmed that it is currently testing Ripple technology for money transfers, particularly those across international orders. Testing for capital optimization is also on their menu. The financial services & communications company has its headquarters in Colorado. The firm was established in 1851 and is currently headed by its Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Hikmet Ersek.
According to the CEO Brad Garlinghouse, Ripple’s technology enables money transactions that are “a thousand times faster and a thousand times cheaper than Bitcoin’s.”Because of this reason WU has chosen ripple to test for money exchanges.
“We are looking especially in the processing settlement and working capital optimization, also in the regulation part, on the compliance part on the blockchain capabilities,” says Hikmet Ersek, Western Union’s Chief Executive Officer. Notably, WU is also testing with the XRP cryptocurrency and not just the blockchain technology.
Ripple as a Cryptocurrency :
If a partnership strikes between WU and ripple, it will provide a major boost to the cryptocurrency’s value, which is currently hovering around $1 after enjoying highs of nearly $4 early January.
Many banks today already use Ripple’s blockchain i.e. xCurrent. But its product, xRapid, hasn’t received similar popularity. Even so, Garlinghouse has continually claimed that banks will soon adopt the cryptocurrency as a “strategic weapon.” Western Union may soon go for a pilot implementation of xRapid.