A group of South Korean money transfer and remittance companies has joined Ripple’s blockchain-based financial services network RippleNet to bolster the remittance market in the country.

In a Feb. 25 announcement, Ripple revealed that South Korea-based money transfer service providers Sentbe and Hanpass, and mobile and online based cross-border remittance services firm WireBarley have begun using the RippleNet platform. The collaboration is geared to improve remittances in Korea.

According to the World Bank, workers’ remittances, receipts in South Korea amounted to over $6.2 billion, in 2018. The top destination country for emigration-related remittances by South Koreans was reportedly the United States, which constituted more than 50% of the total number of remittances, with Malaysia running second.

Also Philippines 

In addition to the three partnerships in South Korea, RippleNet has also announced it’s collaboration with London-based remittance service Azimo. The companies will open an On-Demand Liquidity corridor to the Philippines, with Ripple’s native token, XRP, as a bridge currency.

Commenting on the partnership, Richard Ambrose, CEO of Azimo, said: “Ripple’s ODL solution has significantly reduced the cost and delivery time for cross-border transfers, and our customers are seeing the benefits.”

Using the RippleNet platform will reportedly reduce liquidity costs by up to 60% compared to traditional banking solutions.

Increasing adoption of Ripple’s technology

In February alone, RippleNet onboarded Bangladesh-based Bank Asia and Mexican International Money Express, a money remittance services firm focused on the Latin and Caribbean corridor.

Another major financial institution that partnered with RippleNet this month was the National Bank of Egypt, which ostensibly hopes to access new markets, and to support and extend its remittance business in the Gulf region in particular.

At the same time, remittances giant MoneyGram announced a new service allowing real-time money sending based on Visa’s Direct Original Credit Transaction. The solution enables MoneyGram’s users to deliver funds to bank accounts through Debit card deposit.

Speaking with Cointelegraph, Kamila Chytil, COO at MoneyGram, pointed out that while Ripple is not involved in this service, the firm uses blockchain-based extensively in other areas:

“Today, MoneyGram is utilizing Ripple’s On Demand Liquidity product which allows MoneyGram to trade FX at a corporate level using XRP. It’s a back-end treasury function that’s not consumer facing. The technology is helping to solve the most expensive and time consuming aspect of the current process by reducing the amount of money the company needs to park around the world, which will eventually reduce working capital needs.”