As the world leader in the advancement of digital P2P payments, MoneyGram International, Inc. (NASDAQ: MGI) has joined forces with the Stellar Development Foundation, a non-profit institution that promotes the advancement and progress of Stellar, an open-source public blockchain that permits money to be tokenized and reassigned anywhere around the world.
Cash financing and payment in local currency will be possible for customers using USDC on MoneyGram’s network, thanks to the integration of the Stellar blockchain and Circle’s USD Coin (USDC). This will also allow for fast backend settlement features for customers using USDC. During the past five years, MoneyGram has expanded to serve almost 150 million customers worldwide.
Consumers will benefit from the collaboration since they will be able to change USDC to cash or cash back to USDC with ease. As a result, digital assets become more valuable and liquid, allowing more people to engage in the digital economy. Since more wallets and businesses join the Stellar network, the effect of this collaboration is anticipated to increase.
The settlement process will be transformed as a result of this collaboration. USDC, the world’s rapidly expanding dollar digital currency, will be used by Circle to settle transactions using MoneyGram for the first time ever. As a result, money may be collected more quickly, which increases efficiency while lowering the threat.
Our top strategic priority at MoneyGram is pioneering trans-border payment development and blockchain-enabled clearance, and we’re excited to collaborate with the Stellar Development Foundation to advance these efforts,” said Alex Holmes, Chairman and CEO of MoneyGram.
“Stablecoins have a lot of promise as a way to speed up cross-border payments as cryptocurrencies gain in popularity. Having experience in worldwide payments, blockchain and compliance puts us in a great position to keep leading the way in connecting cryptos with fiat currencies across the world.”
It was MoneyGram that first used blockchain technology in its overseas currency operations and has since established much creative collaboration that give consumers access to cryptos on a large scale. This new connection with Stellar is MoneyGram’s next step in leading the development of digital peer-to-peer payments. MoneyGram continuously invests in digital currency projects.
For CEO and Executive Director Denelle Dixon, “this collaboration is a brilliant illustration of how blockchain technology and stablecoins offer new possibilities to worldwide consumers and improve the current financial system.” Dixon stated.
“New cash users will now be able to utilize MoneyGram’s services with the lightning-fast transaction speeds and cheap transaction costs of Stellar, allowing them to transfer their USDC into and out of crypto currency services that were earlier inaccessible. We’re excited to work with MoneyGram to further our goal of ensuring that everyone has equal access to financial services.”
“The establishment of this collaboration shows the strength of cryptocurrencies such as USDC in facilitating quick and safe digital economy settlement,” said Jeremy Allaire, Circle’s co-founder and CEO. Financial services may be redesigned to profit and best serve global consumers when done collaboratively. “Together, we’re at the vanguard of innovation. United Texas Bank will act as a go-between for Circle and MoneyGram in the settlement process. This is a first-of-its-kind USDC to USD settlement inside a bank regulatory environment,” said Scott N. Beck, United Texas Bank’s director. “We are delighted to play an important role in the settlement process.”
After launching in a few key countries by the year 2021, the collaboration plans to expand internationally by 2022.
