Commercial payments provider FLEETCOR Technologies, Inc. announced news on Thursday (March 1) that it has entered a pilot program with enterprise blockchain solution firm Ripple and Cambridge Global Payments, the international payments provider focused on B2B and owned by FLEETCOR.
The companies said in a release that under the terms of the agreement with Ripple, Cambridge — which processes more than $20 billion in B2B cross-border payments annually, across 13,000 business clients — will pilot using XRP (the digital asset of the XRP ledger) across payment flows through Ripple’s xRapid solution.
The xRapid pilot builds upon a relationship already extant between Cambridge Global Payments and Ripple. According to the release, their partnership has been exploring what were termed “similar advantages” of xCurrent, which is the Ripple software geared toward messaging and international transaction settlements.
Ripple’s software lets financial institutions communicate information about payments to one another in real time, with instant settlement.
“We are excited for the insights this pilot program is expected to deliver, and we will use that information to help both Cambridge and FLEETCOR develop our use cases for blockchain in international payments,” said Mark Frey, chief operating officer, Cambridge Global Payments.
“We strive to deliver best-in-class, cross-border payments services, with speed and transparency. We look forward to exploring how Ripple can help us continue to improve the customer experience using new technology,” he continued.
Ripple has said it has more than 100 customers around the world.