TerraPay, a global money movement company, announced a collaboration with 5 of the leading wallet operators to establish the “Wallet Interoperability Council”, aiming to leverage TerraPay’s technology to facilitate interconnection and interoperability in cross-border transactions.
Together, these operators serve millions of wallet users, “spanning regions such as Bangladesh, Colombia.” The founding members of this council “include Airtel, bKash, MPESA, Nequi, and Sama Money.”
The council aims to “facilitate merchant payments, international remittances, and other use cases in cross-border transactions interconnecting their diverse platforms, advancing global wallet interoperability.”
While wallets have predominantly served as local payment solutions, there is a “clear demand for expansion into the global arena and TerraPay technology aim to facilitate this expansion.”
Esther Masese Waititu, Chief Financial Services Officer, Safaricom PLC:
“This initiative is a significant and timely development – and Safaricom is excited to be a part of the Wallet Interoperability Council. This collaborative effort with TerraPay, is pioneering interoperability for global wallet payments and will accelerate our efforts in driving more value for our users for international money movement.”
This open collaboration will bring together “the expertise and resources to develop the conditions that ensures secure, efficient, and cost-effective cross-border wallet transactions for payments and money movement.”
TerraPay enables this initiative, providing both “the technology infrastructure and handling clearing and settlement processes.”
María del Pilar, Chief Product Officer at Nequi said:
“Collaborating among us, and with TerraPay is a strategic move that will accelerate the adoption of digital wallets and financial platforms globally and enhance the overall cross-border payment experience. This is a team effort where we share and complement each other’s capabilities.”
Ian Ferrao CEO Airtel Money said:
“We are excited to be part of this effort and look forward to delivering tangible benefits to our customers and our shareholders. Until now the only option to enable our users to use their wallet internationally was to secure bilateral agreements, but we can’t sign 100s of them efficiently, and that’s where this alliance brings value to all the participants.”
Multiple studies show that by 2028, there will be “more than 7 billion wallets processing around $16 trillion in volume. Multi-rail wallets are gaining leadership and prominence in ecommerce and face to face environments with cross-border payments playing a pivotal role in wallet expansion.”
Ali Ahmmed, Chief Commercial Officer at bKash, said:
“This collaboration will bring the best of our capabilities together and leverage each other’s reach & coverage to enhance our own consumer’s experience, while keeping independency, and adding significant utility to our wallet consumers for cross border merchant payments. We believe that all participants will win with this council; however, our wallet consumers would be the real winner.”
This council is a first step to capitalize on these trends, “offering needed interoperability and enhancing the user experience for millions of wallet users.”