Ripple is opening a new office in Brazil to support its growing customer base across South America markets, according to a report by Cointelegraph Brazil.
The new office brings the San Francisco-based fintech closer to its regional customer base, enabling banks, payment providers, and corporates to make instant Payments into-and-out of the country using Blockchain .
Ripple had already laid the foundations in the country by signing partnerships with BeeTech Global, Santander Brasil and Banco Rendimento to use its flagship product RippleNet, which connects over 200 banks and payment providers for cross-border remittances.
Antonio Sacco, former CEO of the Brazilian subsidiary of The Warranty Group has been appointed country manager for Brazil. He already joined Ripple back in March, bringing extensive experience in transaction banking, product management, and regional strategy roles.
A way for Brazilians to peacefully opt out of old systems
Brazilians have not missed the cryptocurrency trend. Within Latin America, the nation was the cryptocurrency ringleader both on the regulatory side and on the development side. As it now stands, the country’s financial watchdog, the CVM, bans regulated investment funds from trading in the virtual asset class.
However, recent surveys show more people are opening cryptocurrency trading accounts than traditional brokerage accounts. Also last year, the parent company of Brazil’s largest independent broker, Grupo XP, announced that it is setting up a cryptocurrency exchange.
Ripple currently has offices in San Francisco, New York, London, Mumbai, Sao Paulo, Singapore, and Sydney.
Ripple is developing several blockchain-based solutions that enable cross-border money transactions between banks in a faster and cheaper way than the current systems allow.
Although Ripple is regularly grouped with other cryptocurrencies, its purpose is different as it also operates a decentralized payment settlement solution for banks and financial institutions that is fast and scalable. Because its xRapid solution has a much shorter transaction time, there have been major companies testing the product such as Western Union and Moneygram, but none have committed to it fully.
