Ripple entices banks with new accelerator programme
Incentives matter
One of the first rules of basic economics is that incentives matter, writes Julie Muhn at Finovate (Banking Technology‘s sister company). Blockchain solutions company Ripple must be privy to this rule as it has unveiled a new accelerator programme and marketing incentives to promote bank interest.
The company announced it will now offer a reward for banks that are the first in their markets to process and promote commercial payments on RippleNet, the company’s enterprise blockchain solution that connects banks, payment providers, digital asset exchanges and businesses. Banks will be rewarded in the form of rebates, funded through $300 million worth of XRP.
The program is intended to accelerate adoption and usage of Ripple and is two-fold – consisting of a Volume Rebate and an Adoption Marketing Incentive. The Volume Rebate programme offers rebates to RippleNet members once they’ve achieved integration and volume milestones by predetermined deadlines. The rebates are issued either in XRP or USD and depend on the volume, but vary from covering 50% to 300% of the integration and first-year license fees.
The Adoption Marketing Incentive is available on a first-come, first-serve basis and matches financial institutions’ marketing spend used to promote Ripple products to their end clients. Ripple will also support efforts by providing marketing content and messaging framework and tools. For both programs, selling restrictions are in place to support a healthy XRP market.
Monica Long, VP of marketing at Ripple, likens the incentive programme to PayPal’s early adoption and referral bonuses. Long said, “Since we’re offering the incentives in XRP, we anticipate seeing an added benefit of building an easy on-ramp for institutions to use XRP in their payment flows to lower liquidity cost in the future.” Long added that the reception of the incentive programs was “very positive” in early testing.
Brad Garlinghouse took the reins as Ripple CEO last autumn.
The company made headlines this spring when it partnered with BBVA to complete an international money transfer using RippleNet. In July, Ripple expanded its suite of offerings that support XRP and last month the company selected Singapore for its new Asia office location.
