TerraPay Forms Wallet Interoperability Pact for Cross-Border Payments

Global money movement company TerraPay and five digital wallet operators teamed up to facilitate cross-border payments and money movement.

The five wallet operators participating in the new Wallet Interoperability Council include Airtel, bKash, MPESA, Nequi and Sama Money, according to a Tuesday (Aug. 20) press release.

Together, these operators serve millions of wallet users in Bangladesh, Colombia, Kenya, Senegal, Tanzania and Uganda, the release said.

As members of the new council, they will use TerraPay’s technology to facilitate the expansion of these wallets from local payment solutions to global ones, per the release.

“The formation of this council marks a significant milestone in our mission to provide innovative and inclusive financial solutions,” TerraPay CEO Ambar Sur said in the release. “Collectively we will empower millions of individuals to participate in the global economy.”

The digital wallet operators will work with each other and with TerraPay to accelerate the adoption of digital wallets and financial platforms as well as enhance the cross-border payment experience they deliver, while also retaining their independence, according to the release.

With expanded capabilities, they aim to streamline cross-border transactions such as merchant payments and international remittances, the release said.

In addition to providing the technology infrastructure, TerraPay will handle clearing and settlement processes, per the release.

“We have a huge respect and admiration for our founding partners, and we are committed to driving the next wave of wallet evolution, bringing the local user experience to the global scale,” Sur said in the release.

The continued emergence of digital wallets and peer-to-peer (P2P) offerings is reshaping the global remittance market, PYMNTS reported in May 2023.

Reducing the cost of cross-border remittances can unlock new use cases for cross-border services, TerraPay Chief Operating Officer Ram Sundaram told PYMNTS in an interview posted in July.

Transactions are the most common use of digital wallet technology, according to the PYMNTS Intelligence report “Digital Wallets Beyond Financial Transactions: A Global Perspective,” which was based on a survey of more than 12,000 consumers across the United States, the United Kingdom, Brazil, France and Germany.

Forty-one percent of consumers said they would likely use digital wallets to carry out financial transactions in the next year, and 40% said the same for storing and accessing payment methods, according to the report.