TerraPay at Pay360: Connecting Global Payment Rails
In an exclusive interview with FinTech Magazine, Viktor Lysyuk, VP Europe and CEO Terra Payment Services at TerraPay, shares insights on how the company is developing payment infrastructure to connect financial institutions globally.
Building the Financial Glue
TerraPay positions itself as the critical infrastructure layer that connects disparate financial systems across borders. Far from being a consumer-facing brand, the company works behind the scenes to enable seamless money movement.
"TerraPay is the money movement infrastructure, the hub that sits between banks, money transfer organisations and digital wallets to serve as the glue that connects all of that together," says Viktor. "For working migrants, access to affordable, cheap and efficient small-value, high-frequency transfers is very important."
"Our partnership with SWIFT allows any bank that's using Swift today, which is pretty much any bank, to send payments terminating in a digital wallet by simply sending a Swift message"
This mission has personal significance for Viktor, who shared that the topic of remittances "is actually quite personally touching for me as I was a working migrant who came to the UK decades ago myself."
The company's infrastructure currently connects an impressive 7.5 billion bank accounts and 3.7 billion digital wallets globally, with capabilities to process payouts to cards as well. By focusing on this backend infrastructure, TerraPay enables other financial institutions to offer more accessible and affordable cross-border services.
Partnering with SWIFT to Expand Reach
One of TerraPay's most significant initiatives is its recently announced partnership with SWIFT, the global financial messaging network used by banks worldwide.
"Our partnership with SWIFT allows any bank that's using Swift today, which is pretty much any bank, to send payments terminating in a digital wallet by simply sending a Swift message," Viktor explains.
This breakthrough eliminates substantial technical barriers that previously existed. "Historically, for a bank to do that, or for a client of a bank to do that, would have necessitated going through a complex and painful process of technical integration, either with the wallet in question directly or with the likes of us," notes Viktor.
Forming the Wallet Interoperability Council
Looking toward the future of payments infrastructure, TerraPay has initiated a significant industry collaboration effort
"One of the initiatives that we've announced in 2024 is the inception of the Wallet Interoperability Council, which is a platform, a forum that includes TerraPay as well as prominent players in the digital wallet economy such as Paytm, M-PESA and Airtel," Viktor shares.
Other council members include bKash, Nequi and Sama Money. The council represents a coordinated approach to addressing systemic challenges in the digital payments ecosystem.
Indeed, the founding members recognise that fragmentation presents significant barriers to growth and adoption.
"Together the founding members of the council recognise that fragmentation of technological solutions and regulatory environments actually prevent and constrain the growth of the global wallet ecosystem," says Viktor, highlighting the industry-wide challenge that TerraPay and its partners are working to overcome through coordinated action and standardisation.
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