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Western Union says it has found no saving by using Ripple’s XRP for transactions while Ripple responded that Western Union hasn’t made a proper case study.
No Savings with XRP
Ripple has pegged its reputation and that of its cryptocurrency, XRP, to the fact that it is a faster, cheaper way to move money across borders. This is the reason that Western Union decided to text the currency using Ripple’s xRapid product but says so far it has seen no savings. CEO Hikmet Ersek told Fortune magazine that,
“We are always criticized that Western Union is not cost-efficient, blah blah blah, but we did not see that part of the efficiency yet during our tests. The practical matter is it’s still too expensive,”
Ersek added that the company is only interested in using XRP if it can cut costs. The loss of Western Union as a client could be a major set back for Ripple but the company has pointed out that the Western Union’s test case is too small to make any conclusive judgments.
In fact, Western Union has only tried XRP in ten transfers and only between US dollars and Mexican pesos. Ripple’s senior vice president of product Asheesh Birla said the pilot was far too small to see significant results. Adding that;
“If they were to move volume at scale, then maybe you would see something, but with 10, it’s not surprising that they’re not seeing cost savings, They do millions of transactions a month, and I’m not surprised that with 10 transactions it didn’t have earth-shattering results.”
Pilot Program too Small
Birla went on to explain that if Western Union expanded it’s test of xRapid to all of its transactions they would see savings of around 50%. He also pointed out that Western Union has failed to embrace the benefits of their product by retaining legacy costs from their traditional method of currency transfer. The company has maintained staff to cover functions that can be eliminated using blockchain and this Birla explained is eating into the cost benefits of adapting xRapid.
CEO Ersek isn’t pulling his support of xRapid yet. He says that he is committed to pilot program and believes that using blockchain can help save the company money. “I don’t want to kill it,” Ersek said before adding that the Ripple team “are good people” who are “very innovative.”
Western Union has been using a 10-digit “money transfer control number” to complete digital payments since the 1990’s that Ersek likens to the companies own digital currency. “We have the cryptocurrency definitely more than 30 years,” he said.
Image from Shutterstock
bagofdonuts 
Bitcoin Mlm 
Richie Stephens 
David Arulnathan 
This isn’t a setup for Ripple it’s a huge mistake on Western Union’s part. They’ll have to change the way they do business or perish.
CEO Ersek isn’t pulling his support of
xRapid yet. He says that he is committed to pilot program and believes
that using blockchain can help save the company money. “I don’t want to kill it,” Ersek said before adding that the Ripple team “are good people” who are “very innovative.”
Western Union ain’t stupid, they did a tiny test of 10 transactions only, they are in no way of rush to jump into the blockchain just yet, there is still plenty of time to get in. Once they ready watch and see. They are doing millions of transactions per month, once the masses move to Ripple or whatever then they will make their BIGGER CHESS MOVE! Perhaps start up their own WU TOKEN!!!
The Amount of years it takes to complete your own blockchain it could be too late. You let Money Graham or any of these other companies get a foot ahead of you you’ll be out of luck if not business. Your wrong about it not being too late companies have been running tests for years now Look at Western Unions profits and losses over the past two years and you tell me if that have the time to wait? 60% savings is what they are missing out on, and for a company already down 43% in sales they will be out of business in a couple years if that unless their CEO has something up his sleeves for the future their screwed ! And they don’t even have to use XRP but 3 better comed up with something quick! Cause the million or two Swift gave to them to hold out they’ll both be on the sidelines in no time Technology moves fast, see what happens after they find themselves procrastinating.
…maybe by using Ripple ,Western Union makes less profits & more profits go to the customers!!