Digital wallets have quietly become the entryway to global commerce. In a webinar hosted by The Paypers and TerraPay, moderated by financial journalist Joy Macknight, two industry leaders unpacked what that shift actually means for banks, merchants, and consumers. Ludovic Francesconi, Chief Member and Strategy Officer at the European Payments Initiative (EPI) - the organisation behind pan-European wallet Wero - brought the bank-led, European perspective. Ani Sane, Co-Founder and Chief Business Officer at cross-border infrastructure company TerraPay, brought a global view shaped by working with wallet providers across emerging markets.
Through their conversation, a conclusion seems to emerge: wallets are winning, but no wallet will win alone. Here are some of the key takeaways.
The wallet boom is real, and regional
Digital wallets now account for roughly 30% of global point-of-sale volume, led by markets like India, Brazil, and Nigeria. Around 4 billion wallets are in use today, heading toward 6 billion by 2030. What drives that growth differs by region – access in Africa and Asia, fragmentation in Europe (the gap Wero targets), embedded commerce in the US and UK, but convenience, speed, and trust are universal.
Wero, and the real battleground
Francesconi described Wero as a pass-through or a container wallet with no stored balance: funds move directly, bank account to bank account, instantly. It’s live in France, Germany, and Belgium with 57 million users, expanding to Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and Austria; still, he highlighted, only a fraction of the EU.
The sharper point was that consumers increasingly buy with the wallet, making the rail behind it nearly irrelevant. Since people keep only one or two wallets on their phone, competition has shifted to BNPL, loyalty, and digital identity, not payments themselves. Sane added that future growth will come less from new users than from expanding what a wallet is used for: remittances, freelance income, cross-border spending.
The interoperability gap
TerraPay’s own research makes the problem concrete. Across 1.220 respondents in 10 markets, 99.9% want to send money internationally through their wallet, but 84% currently can’t. 75% can’t receive an international payment at all, and only 3.9% of existing international payments reach users via wallets today. 57.5% say their wallet works domestically but fails internationally.
The human cost is real: 4.2% of surveyed freelancers and SMEs had confirmed work rejected because a client couldn’t pay into their wallet, and over two-thirds now rely on informal, higher-risk channels instead.
Why it’s harder than it looks
Francesconi named two challenges: weak business cases on many corridors, and genuine complexity – competing initiation technologies, scheme rules, fraud processes, and support that all have to align across borders. Sane shares TerraPay's perspective: interoperability needs technical, syntactic, semantic, and organisational alignment, not just an API. Wero is already testing this with Bizum, MB Way, and MobilePay on a shared hub, so a German traveller in Spain could pay via Wero over Bizum’s network with neither side changing anything.
Collaboration over isolation
Francesconi pointed to the lack of balanced, collectively owned standards as the reason no global wallet network exists yet, calling for a collaborative effort. Sane closed with this line: the future won’t be won by the biggest wallet, but by the wallets connected to the strongest networks.
The technology and the users are already there. What’s left is standards, rules, and partnerships. Whether wallets go truly borderless by 2030 depends less on who builds the best app, and more on who’s willing to connect.
Want to hear the full conversation? Watch the webinar recording here.
About Paula Albu
Paula Albu has experience in content writing and editing, as well as being a creative storyteller. As a Junior Editor at The Paypers, she investigates Web3 technologies along with the latest trends and regulations in banking and fintech. Paula is committed to turning complex industry topics into engaging, accessible content that resonates with readers and creates a meaningful connection. She is available via LinkedIn or at paula@thepaypers.com.
About TerraPay
TerraPay simplifies global money movement through one of the most expansive regulated cross-border payment networks. Connecting 3.7+ billion mobile wallets and 7.5+ billion bank accounts across 150+ countries, TerraPay enables instant, secure, and compliant transfers. Trusted by leading banks, fintechs, MTOs, and merchants, TerraPay drives financial inclusion worldwide, with headquarters in London and offices across Africa, Asia, the Middle East, and the Americas.
