National commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia (NCB) has joined RippleNet. About this Ripple announced yesterday in its official blog.
Did not specify what services the Ripple will use NCB. As stated in the press release, the Agency first plans to establish “corridors” with other banks-partners of Ripple Singapore and then in other countries in Asia and North America.
The conclusion of the partnership with the NCB became possible after the Monetary authority of Saudi Arabia (the de facto Central Bank of the Kingdom) has successfully completed testing xCurrent in February of this year.
In turn, the partnership opens up access to a huge Ripple market: Saudi Arabia, home to more than 10 million foreigners, often using the service cross-border money transfer — mainstream payment solutions Ripple. As of January 2018, the total annual volume of funds transferred by expatriates in Saudi Arabia to accounts in countries of birth, were approximately $38 billion.
NCB is the first Bank opened in Saudi Arabia, and one of the largest financial institutions in the middle East. To date, the Bank has 400 active branches in the country and 5.4 million customers worldwide.
In addition to Saudi Arabia, Ripple managed to enter into cooperation with banks in other MENA countries: Oman, Kuwait and the UAE.
