Ripple donates $10M to Mercy Corps during annual Swell conference

Ripple continues its effort to bring financial inclusion to struggling markets.

Ripple announced a contribution of $10 million to Mercy Corps to help it use digital assets in its work on financial inclusion in emerging markets during the annual Swell conference.

Mercy Corps is a non-governmental, humanitarian aid organization that aims to create economic opportunities in countries where the financial system isn't operating properly.

The organization claims to have assisted over 220 million people survive various humanitarian conflicts.

According to an announcement, Mercy Corps will partner with Ripple and its non-profit RippleWorks to support solutions that include digital assets and cryptocurrencies.

Speaking at the conference, Scott Onder, senior managing director at Mercy Corps Ventures, highlighted the need to ensure vulnerable populations are not left behind in the fintech revolution.

"The existing financial system is fragmented, antiquated, and exclusionary-leaving 1.7 billion people unbanked and disproportionately excluding women," he said.

"Emerging fintech, crypto and blockchain technologies have the potential to radically transform it, but there are substantial risks for the world's most vulnerable people if their needs are not taken into consideration as these new technologies are designed and deployed," Onder added.

FinX, a joint venture by Mercy Corps Ventures and Mercy Corps, aims to improve financial inclusion in struggling markets by focusing on products around distributed ledger technology.

During the conference, Ripple also hinted that the second-largest bank in the United States, Bank of America, is currently using one of its products.