I am aware of what Ripple is up to - I am not sure it is correct to say that it already exists and functioning.
The number of "trial"participants and "currency corridors" is very limited at this early stage.
The participants are major banks/financial institutions. Ultimately i would think that the goal as first mover is to be the dominant global system with all major financial institutions participating.
The question is - where does that leave the little guys in need of forex services transferring in sizes up to
tens of thousands of dollars?
I think of OFX as a single very large corporate participant in the forex market - an "AGGREGATOR" for its thousands of clients. A single client transacting $10k is powerless when dealing with the banks in forex. With OFX transacting on my behalf, each time I transact I already am several hundred dollars ahead.And I am not fussed about whether the funds is transacted in 1o seconds or several hours - in the context of how long it takes to ship goods around the world. I think it also explains why OFX holds $45m in major currencies.
Bottom line - IMHO the likes of OFX will be participants in any future system (as aggregators on behalf of the millions of small scale transactions). I cannot imagine central banks will allow future systems to operate that will shut out the likes of OFX. In the context of global bank profits - what OFX makes is
very very insignificant but that is not the point.
Interestingly, earlier last month Transferwise raised a net $280m to grow its business.
What caught my eye is that TW transacts about the same volume of $ as OFX - $20billion/year
but the shares were priced at around 6 times the market value of OFX !
OFX Price at posting:
$1.30 Sentiment: Buy Disclosure: Held
