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I think Egypt is a place ripe for Ripple adoption. Of course, I hope this about most places so here is some data that makes it worth keeping an eye on. [1] In the most general of ways, the situation in Egypt might seem familiar to the situation in India: the government has alternately outlawed and permitted crypto. Currently it is not exactly clear where they stand on it, but there has been a recent legal push towards licensing. [https://cointelegraph.com/news/egypt-lays-out-path-for-a-crypto-future-with-draft-law ] [2] The country intends to move towards a cashless society, but they have a very high amount of unbanked people. [ https://www.egypttoday.com/Article/3/68491/Sisi-approves-cashless-methods-of-payment-law ] To this end, the government is working on a unified card for citizens to receive all their government entitlements such as salaries, pensions or subsidies, tied to either a bank or an Egypt Post account. They are also "working aggressively" on encouraging mobile money & mobile wallets use. Government is also working with the CB to offer microfinancing through mobile applications. This effort will provide banking to 20mill + unbanked. [ http://www.theworldfolio.com/files/file/report-5cae38c273220.pdf ] (Left & Right columns) [3] Significantly, these efforts are connected to a three-year programme, FIGI, led by ITU, the World Bank Group and the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) of the Bank for International Settlements, with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation... [https://news.itu.int/how-egypt-builds-trust-digital-financial-services/ ] Likewise, the use of Post Banks for financial inclusion is something the Universal Post Union, with support from the Gates Foundation, has been behind. [http://news.upu.int/no_cache/nd/gates-foundation-helps-upu-support-partnerships/] [4] Recently, the Central Bank of Egypt, in december, said it will issue a digital currency [ http://en.amwalalghad.com/egypts-central-bank-studies-issuing-digital-currency-official/ ] While it is not clear what platform might be used, it is worth noting that the government owned National Bank of Egypt and the largest private bank, the CIB are both members of R3, Voltron. This largest private bank and R3 Partner, CIB, intends to build out a DLT network in 2019. In their EOY 2018 annual Report, they claim to have tested "different use cases for potential development into live projects and built a local blockchain network for banks and different financial services providers" [https://www.cibeg.com/English/InvestorRelations/FinancialInformation/Annual Reports/Annual Report 2018_002.pdf ] [5] Another piece of the puzzle might be that Kuwait's NBK, a Ripple partner, has a significant presence in Egypt and their other neighbors, Saudi Arabia are also involved with Ripple. So too, UAE, and the major bank in Oman. [6] Finally, consider that Egypt's Suez Canal Economic Zone, has deep ties with Russia. Russia is building a huge economic zone in this trade/port center for Russian manufacturing and trade with Africa, Middle East and Europe. Putin claimed $7billion will be invested. At the same time, with so much trade finance at stake, both the EU and Russia are investigating alternatives to SWIFT to avoid US financial control. [https://www.rt.com/business/452047-russia-industrial-zone-egypt ] [https://uk.reuters.com/article/russia-banks-swift/russia-backs-global-use-of-its-alternative-swift-system-idUKL8N2163BU] [https://english.mubasher.info/news/3333401/EU-starts-SWIFT-alternative-money-transfer-system] [7] In 2018, Egypt received the 5th largest amount of remittances. The first list: India China Mexico Philippines Egypt That list should look very familiar to Ripple fans... [https://migrationdataportal.org/themes/remittances ] /end

https://xrpripplenews.com/2019/08/22/ripple-signs-xendpay-to-ripplenet-for-cheaper-faster-payments/

SendFriend, the next-generation remittance service and currently, the smartest way to send money to the Philippines, today announced it has raised $1.7M in total capital to better enable Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) to securely transfer USD to PHP at the lowest rate available. The funding comes from MIT Media Lab, Barclays, the Mastercard Foundation, Ripple, Techstars, Mahindra Finance, 2020 Ventures, and 8 Decimal Capital. More than $45 billion in fees on remittance services, which often take 3-5 days, was spent last year by the millions of migrants in the U.S. who send home more than $650 billion in remittances. SendFriend will launch as the only option for OFWs to securely and reliably send money internationally with fees that are 65% lower than the industry average as it replaces the frictions and fees of the banking system with one seamless, ultra low cost experience to send money globally. Through a partnership with blockchain company Ripple, SendFriend leverages xRapid to create a seamless money transfer experience. XRP is used as a liquidity vehicle for cross-border payments, enabling SendFriend to circumvent the corresponding banking system and convert USD to XRP to PHP in a matter of seconds. https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/sendfriend-next-generation-remittance-company-announces-17m-in-capital-from-8-decimal-capital-techstars-2020-ventures-barclays-mit-media-lab-2019-02-11?siteid=nbkh

Hi Ripple community Im interested in creating a remittance based business and am trying to figure out how xRapid provides liquidity. The reason i ask is that the destination country has no exchange that lists XRP.. so no way of converting the XRP into fiat or into another cryptocurrency. So how would xRapid solve this issue?

The strategy to target the remittance market is now plain for all to see; In my latest blog, I discuss the remittance processors and why this market will be the first one to utilize xRapid ahead of the banks. How big is the remittance market? How many of the top companies are implementing Ripple? The answers are inspiring. look into this industry, as well as the reasons why the top companies are all going in the direction of implementing Ripple technology. Hope you enjoy the read: Please leave any feedback below. Feel free to share my blog with a friend or on any other media - and thank you for doing so! Twitter Reddit r/Ripple Reddit r/CryptoCurrency Reddit r/CryptoMarkets Reddit r/xrp Reddit r/RippleTalk Bitcointalk - alt coin sub forum Bitcointalk - XRP speculation thread

Here the list of top 5 remittance companies: 1. Western Union 2. Money Gram 3. Ria 4. Transferwise 5. WorldRemit All information from Tearsheet.co and Business Insider.

Really research SBI Ripple Asia. They are the powerhouse that brought the huge Japanese banking consortium to partner with Ripple. The CEO says he believes XRP WILL BE THE GLOBAL STANDARD IN PAYMENTS. see his interview. Also look at this quarterly financials report. on page 78 it mentions that as the largest remittance company in Asia they are in alliance with 350,000 Moneygram Agent locations in 200 countries. It also says they are planning on going livebin Aurumn 2017. HODL ON! Its just one of the many reasons i decided to buy XRP. http://www.sbigroup.co.jp/english/investors/d...ations.pdf https://ripple.com/insights/sbi-holdings-view...aka-kitao/

This is a question for the Ripple team. Most likely, @miguel. However, maybe @JoelKatz could provide some information as well. One of the huge takeaways from SWELL is that XRP liquidity needs to be grown before we can start to (hopefully) see widespread usage of XRP by financial institutions/payment processors. The goal of this post is to understand just how much liquidity is needed before FIs can start using XRP on a consistent basis. Let's use the US Dollar and the Peso as an example (USD/MXN). Also assume we are talking about remittance. There are two components to this remittance transaction that uses XRP as the bridge: 1. USD/XRP 2. XRP/MXN Additionally, please keep in mind that their needs to be enough liquidity to be able to handle peak transaction times (for example, Friday afternoon after lots of people receive a paycheck). As a result, deep XRP liquidity is needed on both ends (USD/XRP as well as XRP/MXN) in order to process all these transactions. So the question is, just how deep are we talking about? Let's use USD/XRP to keep things simple. Two questions: 1. If the USD/XRP pair is trading $.20, then just how much liquidity is needed on the offer (let's just assume "best offer" for now)? If it's a $1000 transaction, then we are looking at 5,000 XRP at the best offer for that single transaction. However, if transactions are coming in every 10 seconds, then this number needs to be greater. So how much XRP is really needed? 200,000? 500,000? 1,000,000? 2. How deep does the liquidity need to be? Using the example above, what if the "best offer" is only 50,000 but there's consistently 500,000 total XRP offered across an entire penny (so .20 to .21)? If this is the case, would this be sufficient? So to sum it up: (1) What is the ideal amount of XRP that needs to be offered for the USD/XRP pair and (2) across what price range? I know there isn't a specific answer and their a lot more variables I didnt address, Im just looking for a ballpark understanding of what Ripple as well as financial institutions would consider "liquid." Thanks for everyone's time.

This blog entry from SaveOnSend discusses the 'big picture' of money transfer, including the perceptions and actions of retail bank customers in the C2C remittance space, the importance of money transfer relative to other sources of bank revenue, and the potential scope for innovation by MTOs / fintech disruptors. Banks and Money Transfer: Sleeping Giants? Excerpt from blog post (italics/bold mine):

"I can’t give numbers but our target is to get more banks on board. Also, I can’t name the other bank right now." - Navin Gupta http://www.livemint.com/Money/WQd0yhFaNop51YGluFQ3FL/Remittances-take-a-long-time-because-banks-are-using-a-50ye.html?facet=amp&utm_source=googleamp&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=googleamp

https://cointelegraph.com/news/major-south-korean-conglomerate-enters-bitcoin-remittance-market Bitcoin as remittance? Would there be implications for Ripple in this?

good article on twitter. clears up the question on "retail remmitance" and commercial payments. Also mentions XRP. https://www.techsciresearch.com/news/2810-ripple-blockchain-technology-set-to-revolutionize-saudi-arabian-banking-sector.html

This is just confirmation that Ripple in the running, and a chance to check out their direct competition as pertains to this particular area. There are some noteworthy entries, but Ripple is by far and away a market leader. It is worth noting that some of these competitors are openly looking to end BTC.....as crypto investors we would be wise to remember that this party could all be over in one regulatory swipe. Unlikely, yes, but don't put all your eggs in one basket. https://fedpaymentsimprovement.org/faster-payments/capability-showcase/

This is just something to be aware of, Ripple is definitely the tip of the spear, but SBI is hedging their bets it would seem. Japan's SBI, megabanks take stakes in blockchain group R3 New network for financial transactions promises to slash costs In blockchain-based systems, users maintain transaction logs, comparing their own copy of records with their peers'. TOKYO -- Japan's SBI Holdings and more than 40 financial institutions from around the globe have pledged some $107 million to R3, an American startup building a new network for financial transactions on the back of blockchain technology. SBI is poised to become the New York-based group's principal shareholder, as it has committed to purchasing more than 2 billion yen ($17.9 million) in new R3 shares through its venture capital fund. Other investors include Wells Fargo, Bank of America Merrill Lynch and Citigroup of the U.S., as well as Japan's three megabanks -- Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group and Mizuho Financial Group. Japanese brokerage Nomura Holdings is also participating. A small group that includes R3's founder holds 100% of the startup's equity. So the current round of funding marks the first influx of outside capital, and will pay for development of systems at the core of R3's planned transaction network, among other efforts. Tailor-made The startup aims to put its version of blockchain -- a so-called distributed ledger that allows all users of a system to communally maintain transaction records -- to work as soon as this fall to begin facilitating actual financial transactions. R3's system has been developed in cooperation with global banks and is specifically tailored to the financial sector. Financial institutions are looking to blockchain-based systems as a way to reduce the costs and time needed to execute transactions. Investing in R3 will also allow them to reduce investment in such systems by sharing the cost burden. In addition, the institutions hope to create new financial services by involving themselves more deeply in the development process. Import-export finance and derivatives trading are expected to be among the first fields where blockchain technology can be put to use. The technology could also be used for personal identification and real estate transactions in the future, yielding benefits such as lower service fees for individuals. Broad possibilities Since joining R3's consortium in March 2016, SBI has participated in such efforts as proof-of-concept testing. Now, the Japanese financial services firm will gain board representation at R3. It aims to use the position to lead the consortium's technological development. SBI has also teamed up with Ripple, the U.S. financial technology startup behind the virtual currency XRP, to form the joint venture SBI Ripple Asia. The SBI group plans to begin operating an exchange for virtual currencies this summer, and plans to launch its own such currency, SBI Coin, down the road. New network for financial transactions promises to slash costs Promising technology from R3 could also yield benefits for SBI's online brokerage and internet banking businesses. The hope is that the lower trading costs afforded by blockchain will draw in new customers.

News article - http://www.channelnewsasia.com/news/singapore/m1-launches-mobile-remittance-service-to-8-regional-markets/3657242.html Telco site - http://www.m1remit.com.sg/ Can't find details of the underlying tech.

http://linkis.com/www.bloomberg.com/ne/b3836 Credit to a 'Marc C' on Twitter for tweeting this great article. Some people apparently can't get past the pay/ad-wall. If so give me a shout. I'd rather not paste it all here for copyright/fairness reasons.

Techcrunch had an article about Western Union today and this part jumped out at me: "Perhaps one day Western Union will explore matching transfers going in opposite directions between countries or using the Blockchain to move money with fewer fees, which could help customers save money. Regarding whether it was experimenting like this, a Western Union representative told me “Not at this time — not to say that couldn’t be an option in the future.” I'm curious about the pilot program between Ripple and Western Union. Nothing was ever mentioned (that I noticed) after the announcement in April. http://techcrunch.com/2016/02/04/check-the-exchange-rate/