Ripple, the global leader in enterprise blockchain solutions for cross-border payments, launches operations in Brazil to expand its footprint in South America. In addition, Ripple is also bringing on seasoned fintech entrepreneur and executive Luiz Antonio Sacco as managing director to drive strategy and build the Ripple ecosystem in the region.

Ripple will exhibit at CIAB Febraban, from June 11 to 13, where it will showcase RippleNet, a global payments network that makes it easy for banks and payment providers to send cross-border payments worldwide. The current payment infrastructure is fragmented and unreliable, making cross-border payments slow, inefficient and costly for financial institutions and businesses. As a result, payments take an average of three to five days to settle, have a six percent failure rate and are expensive, especially when dealing with low value, high volume transactions. With RippleNet, customers can address these challenges:

• Speed: payments settle in seconds, not days
• Certainty: end-to-end visibility into fees, payment status and customer information
• Cost: lower capital requirements for cross-border payments
• Access: standardized connections and rules across different networks

"In January, Ripple surpassed 200 customers on RippleNet. The company is experiencing rapid customer growth across all markets, and is launching in Brazil in response to high customer demand in South America. We are fortunate to have Luiz on board to expand our presence in the region and help our customers address the challenges of cross-border payments,” says Eric van Miltenburg, SVP of Global Operations.

RippleNet Customers

Ripple already has more than a dozen Brazilian financial institutions and money transfer companies on RippleNet, such as:

• Santander Brazil: Santander customers experience faster transaction times, seeing payments settle in seconds instead of an average of three to five days. Santander Brazil is one of the largest commercial banks in Brazil with over nine million customers.
• BeeTech: By using RippleNet, the company was able to drop its fees from $20 to $2. BeeTech Global provides international payment services to more than 150,000 customers worldwide and is one of the many emerging money service providers relying on new technologies like Ripple to power faster, more reliable and affordable international payments.
• Banco Rendimento: Banco Rendimento is a pioneer in the international payments space in Brazil. Using RippleNet, customers can receive funds into their bank account much quicker, safer and cheaper.

“We're excited to grow our ecosystem in the region and bring additional financial institutions onto RippleNet to help provide excellent, efficient cross-border payment experiences for their customers,” says Luiz Antonio Sacco, Managing Director - South America. “Brazil is a leader in fintech innovation and positioned to forge a path for the rest of South America to follow.”

Ripple is experiencing dramatic growth - adding an average of two to three new financial institutions to RippleNet each week. The company saw more transactions on the network in Q1 '19 than it did in all of 2018. In 2019, Ripple is focused on growing its customer base and team in Brazil, and across South America including in countries such as Chile, Peru and Argentina.

University Blockchain Research Initiative

Ripple's efforts in Brazil go beyond delivering software solutions to financial institutions. Consistent with its history as a mission driven company, last year Ripple launched the University Blockchain Research Initiative (UBRI) to support academic research, technical development and innovation in blockchain, cryptocurrency and digital payments.

Ripple committed resources to top tier Brazilian universities, including University of São Paulo and Fundação Getulio Vargas. The company is working with over fifteen professors at USP and FGV to help support academic research and technical development across disciplines including law, business and engineering.

“We believe that academic institutions will play a key role driving the blockchain industry forward. USP and FGV are innovative, forward-thinking institutions that are investing in blockchain research to explore new use cases and help prepare students for future jobs in this space,” Sacco concludes.

Other leading institutions included in the program are Stanford, University College London (UCL), University of Pennsylvania, University of Waterloo and IIT Bombay, among others.