MoneyGram talks up Ripple partnership, goes live with XRP and xRapid, in Q2 earnings

Ripple • August 3, 2019, 8:51AM EDT
The Block

MoneyGram CEO Alex Holmes touted the benefits of the company's commercial agreement with Ripple in the company's Q2 2019 earnings call, the first since the strategic partnership was announced. MoneyGram stressed the financial aspects of the agreement, noting that Ripple paid $4.10 for $MGI shares, a significant premium to the $1.45 price at which shares were trading at the time.

MoneyGram, the 2nd largest global money transfer firm, shared that the company initiated transactions on Ripple's xRapid blockchain platform as of last week. In the company's earnings presentation, Holmes stated "Ripple will become our key partner for cross-border settlement using digital assets, and we’ve already started executing trades." However, no statistics were given about the number of transactions or overall payment volume utilizing xRapid.

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Most of MoneyGram's statements about Ripple and xRapid around Q2 earnings were forward-looking. The company expects that utilizing xRapid and XRP for cross-border settlement "will reduce working capital needs and have the potential to generate additional earnings and cash flow" moving forward. 

Ultimately, Holmes believes that "the [Ripple] partnership enables us to more closely align funding costs to daily transactions, which will help streamline our global liquidity management."

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Mike Dudas is one of the founders of The Block and was the CEO until April 2020 and a board member until April 2021. Prior to starting The Block, Mike was co-founder and CRO of Button, the leading global, mobile performance marketing platform. Mike is a builder of mobile commerce businesses, having worked at Google, Braintree/Venmo and PayPal. Early in his career, Mike worked in corporate M&A and strategy for Disney. Mike earned a BA from Stanford and an MBA from Kellogg.

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