Western Union working with Ripple Labs

Western Union, one the leading global remittance giant, and Ripple Labs, the distributed payment protocol provider, are reportedly working together on a pilot program. Ripple Labs confirmed the news in a tweet, while promoting CEO Chris Larsen's appearance at Global Conference 2015, the annual event hosted by the Milken Institute.

Monica Long, VP of marketing and communications at Ripple Labs, told CoinDesk that Western Union is "exploring a pilot project using Ripple" and no further details are available yet.

However, she said that Western Union interest in Ripple is mainly due to its established value propositions, stating:

"In general, financial institutions and networks use Ripple as a technology that powers real-time settlement in any currency to lower the cost of liquidity and compliance."