What’s the event?
SendFriend raised $1.7 million from MIT Media Lab, MasterCard Foundation, Barclays and Ripple.
Facebook is developing a way to use cryptocurrency to transfer money on WhatsApp messenger in India, and will focus on remittance market
What is SendFriend?
SendFriend is a startup focused on improving cross-border payments. The team is from World Bank and MoneyGram. SendFriend is a partner of Ripple.
This new generation remittance company focuses on the smartest way to send money to the Philippines, which will help overseas Filipino workers safely transfer dollars to PHP via SendFriend at the lowest possible fee.
What’s the pain point in cross-border payments?
Immigrants in the United States who send money the old-fashioned way often face delay, high fees, and sometimes can't get through.
The high fee is the most important one. The size of remittances in the United States is $650 billion, and the transaction fees reached $45 billion.
How does SendFriend improve the remittance?
SendFriend uses Ripple's xRapid payment solution to facilitate cross-border payments. XRP provides the liquidity needed for transactions. xRapid transaction is to convert dollars into XRP, which is then sent via an exchange, bypassing banks and financial institutions, and then convert XRP back into PHP via an exchange in the Philippines. SendFriend has reduced the cost of service by 65% from the industry average.
Companies using xRapid
| company | business | country |
|---|---|---|
| Cuallix | credit loans, car insurance and more importantly, international payment | USA - Mexico |
| Mercury FX | remittance | UK - Mexico |
| Catalyst Corporate Federal Credit Union | international payments | USA-Mexico |
| SBI Holdings | international calling and money transfer | Japan |
| MoneyGram | global money transfer | global |
| Cambridge FX | cross-border payments | global |
| WesternUnion | cross-border payments | global |
| Viamericas | money transmitter | Mexico and South America |
| Transpaygo | money transfer | global |
More about remittance market
Clients
250 million immigrants and workers need send money back home every year.Market capacity
| Global | Developing Countries | India |
|---|---|---|
| $650 Billion | $470 Billion | $80 Billion |
Remittances have even become one of the pillars of the economy in some countries, such as Egypt and the Philippines
Methods
Fee
Flows
Conclusion
The main obstacles to cryptocurrency-based remittances are foreign exchange controls and anti-money laundering laws in individual countries. But a regulated stablecoin could be the breakthrough. We should look at whether any companies will use regulated stablecoin to improve remittance operations.