Worldwide, 42% of women are unbanked—excluding them from access to modern financial services. Blockchain technology provides a secure and inexpensive way to complete financial transactions including global payments, presenting a unique opportunity to empower women and the underbanked around the world.
Below we feature stories of two women who are taking control over their global payments experience and share how blockchain technology is helping support their families abroad.
Sarinya’s Story
Medical expenses, tuition payments and unexpected bills are the norm for families making regular cross-border payments. Yet, payment services are often unreliable, slow and expensive—causing undue financial stress on loved ones.
As the overseas workforce and tourism continue to grow globally, people are looking for better alternatives to send and receive funds; people like Sarinya Sumniangngam. Sarinya lives in rural Nonthaburi province in Thailand while her daughter lives and works in Japan, managing a restaurant. Sarinya’s daughter regularly sends money home to Thailand to help cover family expenses and pay for her brother’s education.
Until recently, Sarinya would have to travel to the bank over an hour away and complete numerous forms to receive the payments from her daughter. Now, Sarinya and her family use SBI Remit’s mobile application, which is powered by blockchain technology and Runs on Ripple. This service eliminates the complicated paperwork, decreases financial burdens on the family, increases the speed of payment delivery and provides transparency of when the payment will be received.
Joyce’s Story
As a single mother in the Philippines, Joyce de Guzman needed a well-paying job to put her two young daughters through school. She accepted a position in Dubai that required a minimum two-year commitment, meaning she would only see her daughters after the contract ends. But, tuition still needed to be paid.
On her lone day off during the work week, Joyce spends at least two hours commuting, standing in lines and completing complicated forms at her local payment provider to send money to her daughters. Yet, after all of this personal time lost, the family is still not given a hard date of when the payment would be received—leading to several back and forth trips to the bank and frequently leaving with no money in hand.
Ripple is focused on addressing the needs of women like Sarinya and Joyce and the millions of others around the world. It’s time to provide the transparency, speed, convenience and lower-cost that is so desperately needed in global payments. In partnership with Ripple’s 300+ customers worldwide, loved ones are able to quickly and efficiently send money home by leveraging the power of blockchain.
