Payment Provider Fleetcor to Pilot Ripple's XRP Cryptocurrency

Workforce and fleet payments provider Fleetcor Technologies has become the latest to trial Ripple's xRapid product, which utilizes its custom cryptocurrency XRP.

New York-based financial consultants Cambridge Global Payments, which Fleetcor acquired last year, will also be part of the partnership, a Ripple spokesperson said. Cambridge has been a Ripple client since 2017, though it has largely used the startup's xCurrent product.

Stepping back, the news comes over a month after telecom provider IDT and payments provider Mercury signed on to pilot xRapid. Similarly, MoneyGram soon after revealed it was piloting the same product to test its speed and efficiency for international payments, as previously reported.

At present, the companies must use pre-funded bank accounts in various countries in order to facilitate transactions.

Cuallix, a Mexican financial services company, has been using XRP as an alternative since last year, and noted in a recent blog post that the liquidity provided by xRapid helps it process direct payments between the U.S. and its southern neighbor both quickly and cheaply.

Various other companies have also signed on with Ripple in recent months, using its blockchain technology stacks, but not XRP, to ease cross-border transactions. Over the past few months, Abu Dhabi-based UAE Exchange, China-based LianLian and the UK arm of Santander Bank have all signed on to use xCurrent.

At the time, the companies largely announced they were looking to lower the cost and time required to send funds across borders.

Disclosure: CoinDesk is a subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, which has an ownership stake in Ripple.