Ripple, Intermex pen Mexican remittances deal

Ripple has partnered with Miami-based International Money Express, or Intermex, in an effort to offer faster, cheaper cross-border payments between the U.S. and Mexico.

In an announcement Tuesday, the blockchain-base payments company said that its technology will be used for a new XRP-based remittance service from Intermex, a money remittance services company focused primarily on the Latin America and Caribbean corridor.  

The partnership will enable Intermex to leverage RippleNet—Ripple’s network of banks and money services businesses—for cross-border remittance services between the two countries. The partnership will also give Intermex access to Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity service, which uses XRP tokens as a bridge between sending and receiving currencies between countries. 

According to Ripple’s website, its ODL service enables settlements in three seconds and cuts costs 40% to 60%. The World Bank has said the cost of a $200 remittance sent home by an overseas worker through traditional channels averages 7%—or $14.

The U.S.-Mexico corridor is one of the largest remittance sectors in the world. Mexico received more than $36 billion in remittances in 2019, with the U.S. topping the list of countries with the highest inbound flow to this region, according to the World Bank. Intermex processed more than 30 million of those payment transactions through its network of 100,000 payer locations. 

Mexican remittances

It is not clear when the service will become available, and Ripple did not respond to request for comment by press time. 

Back in April 2019, Ripple announced a similar deal with Moneygram, which also uses Ripple’s XRP-powered ODL service. Ripple took a $50 million stake in MoneyGram at the time. It controls just under 10% of MoneyGram’s outstanding common stock.

For its part, MoneyGram’s Chairman and CEO Alex Holmes recently announced the company is now moving 10% of its transaction volume between the U.S. and Mexican borders. It plans to expand use of Ripple’s ODL services into four more corridors this year.

(Editor’s Note: Modern Consensus Founder Ken Kurson sits on Ripple’s board.)