• Siam Commercial Bank is partnering with Ripple to develop start a payment app for the Asian market.
• Over 16 million customers of Thailand’s oldest bank will benefit from real-time payments at low fees.

Siam Commercial Bank (SCB) is Thailand’s oldest bank with a customer base of more than 16 million members who have an account with the 112-year-old bank. The bank has entered into a cooperation with Ripple to launch a new payment app “SCB Easy”. The mobile application is powered by Ripple and will enable instant, low-cost cross-border payments.

Ripple and Siam Commercial Bank launch payment app SCB Easy

A recent survey by research firm PwC shows that the number of active users of mobile payments is growing fastest in Asian countries worldwide. China leads the way with 86% of the population using the WeChat app. However, Thailand is also in the top places with coverage of 67%.

Arthit Sriumporn, SVP of Commercial Banking of SCB, describes that the number of overseas workers and tourism continues to increase and people are looking for better ways to send and receive money across borders at low prices:

It is so difficult to send and receive money today. People must physically go to a bank branch, fill out long and complicated forms and wait for payments to be received—with no transparency. With our service, their loved ones from abroad can transfer payment and receive money immediately.

In November 2019, Sriumporn presented the payment app at the Swell conference hosted by Ripple. At the presentation held, the money had arrived at the recipient’s bank account within 40 seconds by using the SCB Easy app. The app is also freely accessible for new customers and can be set up quickly and easily with the bank account from home.

SCB is planning further expansion into Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam. Ripple and SCB are also working together on another project to offer cross-border EMVCo-QR payments. QR payments are a popular payment method in South East Asia, but are typically only used in local areas. With this method, SCB customers can not only use remittance services, but also micro-payment services:

Imagine you are a tourist coming to Thailand, and you can use your home country mobile application to scan for payment and eliminate the need to exchange for local currency. You can use your mobile app, scan the QR payment and receive goods right away.

Sriumporn is excited about Ripple’s technology and is pleased to offer this unique service to its customers as well as to tourists and new customers. He summarizes (freely translated):

We are changing lives with Ripple.

The article does not specify whether the product On-Demand Liquidity, formerly known as xRapid, will be used and whether the payments will rely on Ripple’s native token, XRP.

Ripple announces enormous growth in 2020

Ripple was able to establish numerous new partnerships in 2019 and achieve many milestones. For example, RippleNet has grown to over 300 cooperation partners and the company employs more than 500 people worldwide. In addition, Ripple CEO Brad Garlinghouse has announced that the Ripple Network is set to grow rapidly in 2020.

A 600% growth in transactions and a 30-40% growth in the customer base is expected. Already in October last year, the volume of transactions in October exceeded the volume for the full year 2018, and the signs of Ripple’s roadmap for this year are set for expansion.

The price of XRP has experienced a correction of – 3.23% to a price of USD 0.2072 within the last 24 hours.

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