More non-banks are joining RippleNet to compete with banks, says Wellington Sculley

Wellington Sculley, one of the first people at Ripple and the current Business Development Director, spoke in a recent interview on the Ripple Drop about the state of RippleNet and its journey over the past year.

Notably, Sculley has been at Ripple for a period of over five years, allowing him to give a comment that encapsulates the knowledge of RippleNet over time. This was seen when he spoke about the changes that have taken place in the network of banks and financial institutions that are a part of Ripple’s network.

The biggest change noticed by Sculley was that there was a larger proportion of non-bank payment companies that joined the network. He stated that this was “super cool” as it represents the entry of non-banks in the market to provide competing solutions. Sculley said:

“I think the biggest change is that we’ve seen an increasing proportion of non-bank payment companies joining the network. I think that’s super cool given that a lot of these non banks are coming into the market to provide various specialized payment services to compete with banks who are really having a problem to catch up.”

The addition of financial institutions to Ripple’s network will provide a higher reach, said Sculley. The movement of the non-banks, in particular, will provide a “network of networks of specialized payment capabilities”, he said.

He also commented on a trend that he had observed over the past few months, referring to the advancement of digital banks into newer features such as multi-currency accounts and support for digital assets. Sculley further illustrated his point with an example of a customer in London who wishes to travel around Europe, which is being solved by banks allowing individuals to hold Bitcoin, XRP, and Ethereum. He stated:

“I think what’s going to come in the future is that more and more of these digital banks, and I think you can even say banks, are going to offer the same similar  capability beyond just a multi-currency account; the ability to hold and potentially spend digital sets in addition to fiat currencies. I think that’s super exciting I think a very different world from where things were about a year ago.

Sculley spoke about the consumer experience resulting from these developments in the payments space, where it would enable a seamless experience for traveling customers. He stated:

“The amount of money that you could save on fees if you have a multi currency account it sounds incredible for travel totally totally. I think exactly the types of problems that these accounts solve for today I think the idea of extending that to these new types of currencies these new types of assets is super interesting.”