US-based Terrabank has selected TerraPay to power cross-border pay-to-account and digital wallet transactions via Mozrt SmartRails.
Terrabank already operates with Mozrt’s payment platform and covers both consumer remittances and business payments.
How the set-up works
The arrangement connects TerraPay's global clearing network to the routing capabilities of SmartRails, aiming to automate cross-border payment flows and to reduce transaction times. Rather than building separate links to foreign banks and wallet providers, Terrabank accesses TerraPay's network through the platform it already uses.
The companies’ partnership goal is to bring four changes for financial institutions and end users: compliance, expanded reach, enhanced speed, and cost efficiency. Payments are screened through integrated fraud prevention, OFAC, and AML checks. Clients gain direct access to digital wallets and bank accounts abroad. Settlement times are expected to shorten, and fees are positioned as lower and more transparent than those of traditional international wires. The services are available to Terrabank's retail, business, correspondent banking, and fintech clients.
According to Ralph Koker, Head of Europe and Americas, TerraPay, the partnership gives the bank access to more than 156 countries and payment corridors, replacing what previously required days of correspondent banking negotiations with a single integration.
TerraPay's network and regulatory footprint
TerraPay reports connecting its partners to more than 7.5 billion bank accounts in more than 156 countries, alongside payouts to cards. The company also operates Xend, a payments interoperability network that supports real-time cross-border payments to and from 3.7 billion wallets through a single connection.
According to TerraPay's 2026 company overview, Swift has approved the company as a Supervised Financial Institution, and it holds more than 30 approvals and licences. Its services include account and name verification, built-in AML and KYC checks, and AI-based fraud prevention, which correspond to the compliance features highlighted in the Terrabank deployment.
Implications for community banks
For Terrabank, which has followed a relationship-based model for more than four decades, the deal extends its international banking capabilities without replacing its existing payment infrastructure. This reflects an approach TerraPay sets out in its company materials, in which banks retain the customer relationship and compliance ownership while relying on an infrastructure partner for last-mile delivery to wallets and local accounts, instead of rebuilding core systems.
The cost gap in the segment remains wide. Figures cited by TerraPay place the global average cost of a USD 200 remittance at around 6.5%, rising to 12.8% through traditional banks, compared with the G20 long-term target of below 3%. Wallet access forms part of TerraPay's response: the company projects that digital wallet users will reach 5.9 billion globally by 2029, with wallets particularly relevant in receiving markets where access to traditional banking is limited.
