How Wallets Are Changing Cross-Border Payments

Digital wallets have altered money movement, especially cross-border payments, TerraPay Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer Ani Sane writes in a new PYMNTS eBook, “The Innovation Mindset: How to Achieve It in 2025.”

The evolution of cross-border money movement, especially over the last few years, has been shaped by shifting consumer behaviors and needs, an unannounced global health crisis, technological advancements and the rapid rise of eCommerce. It’s safe to say that innovation is no longer optional, especially in a world characterized by change. One of the strongest and most effective ways to enable innovation is to pinch an idea that works elsewhere and apply it to your business. This “what if” approach is what led to the birth of TerraPay, and nearly a decade later it is what continues to drive our outlook toward the challenges we’re committed to solving. After all, there was a time when the word instant was not associated with cross-border money transfers. The commitment to innovate and challenge the status quo brought that vision to life. Our ambitions as a global money movement company also stem from this commitment. We asked ourselves: if an SMS can reach anyone, anywhere in the world, instantly, cost-effectively, without any interruptions, why can’t money?

Of course, the complexities are compounded when it comes to cross-border money movement. But within these complexities are the biggest opportunities to reimagine how money flows.

One of the strongest opportunities that has stood out for us is digital wallets. Over the last decade, digital wallets have fundamentally altered the financial landscape, bringing millions of unbanked and underbanked into the formal financial system. They have proved to be especially important for instant small-value cross-border transfers, which as we have witnessed over the years, are often far more critical in nature. By 2026, wallets will have 5.2 billion users globally, with transaction volumes predicted to exceed $12 trillion. The numbers reflect the massive impact of wallets, but I believe they also urge the financial industry to recognize the opportunity in waiting. How can we bring cross-border capabilities to digital wallets across geographies? What does the future of payments with wallets at the center look like? Where can we leverage collaboration to create a win-win situation for every stakeholder? Our joint initiative with Swift and our Wallet Interoperability Council (WIC) — founded in 2024 together with Airtel, bKash, M-PESA, Nequi and Sama Money — are the result of exploring such questions. Putting collaboration at the core, both these initiatives align with our vision to simplify global money movement for all. WIC aims to address interoperability and interconnectivity challenges, enabling users across the globe to make cross-border remittances and merchant payments more easily. Our Swift collaboration allows banks to cater to the rising demand for instant payments with wallet-based cross-border payment services, supporting their innovation efforts.

As the global appetite for digital and instant payments grows, we need to collectively rethink how we can build a stronger ecosystem. This demands working together as an industry to shed limiting beliefs and solve the existing obstacles facing the payment landscape today including the lack of interoperability, regulatory, integration and infrastructural challenges across multiple markets and more.