Ripple enters new billion-dollar market in Brazil through new partnership

MoneyGram has launched an online platform in Brazil, the company said in a press release yesterday.

MoneyGram Online (MGO) will allow Brazilian customers to send remittances anywhere in the world, MoneyGram said in the press release. Customers pay no transaction fees to use the service, which promises to send “near real-time” transfers.

“This is a significant growth opportunity for MoneyGram to gain market share in a country with one of the largest populations in the world,” said Alex Holmes, CEO of MoneyGram. “As we enter the new year, we’re set for success.”

MoneyGram said the service is made possible through a partnership with Frente Corretora, a Brazilian FinTech company. Frente Corretora is also a partner of Ripple, announced by Ripple in August. As a result, XRP holders are excited for the service to leverage Ripple’s liquidity-on-demand (ODL) service, which uses XRP as a bridge currency.

However, this is not explicitly mentioned in the report.

If so, it wouldn’t be the first time MoneyGram has used Ripple’s ODL service. The two struck a partnership in 2019, under which Ripple acquired a $30 million stake in the company and allowed MoneyGram to use Ripple’s ODL service, then called xRapid, for cross-border payments.

However, the partnership ended in March 2021, not long after the US Securities and Exchange Commission sued Ripple over the alleged offer and sale of an unregistered security. While they didn’t give a reason for the split, Garlinghouse said in a statement that both parties are committed to forming new partnerships in the future.

Today we announce that Ripple and MGI have jointly agreed to conclude our current partnership agreement and have both committed to revisit it in the future. See our full statement: 1/2 https://t.co/KGozPWuThR

— Brad Garlinghouse (@bgarlinghouse) March 8, 2021

Ripple’s ODL service has expanded to nearly 40 payment marketplaces, representing around 90% of the forex markets, enabling cheap and near-instant cross-border payments for its partners.