Mastercard taps TerraPay to enable contactless wallet payments

Mastercard has partnered with cross-border payments infrastructure provider TerraPay to expand contactless payment acceptance for digital wallets across Mastercard’s global network.

Under the agreement, TerraPay will connect digital wallet providers, including mobile money operators, FinTech firms and banks to Mastercard’s acceptance infrastructure via its interoperability platform. This will allow wallet users to make near-field communication (NFC) payments at more than 150 million Mastercard acceptance locations worldwide.

The collaboration is aimed at addressing a long-standing challenge in the digital payments ecosystem: the limited interoperability of wallets across geographies and merchant networks. While digital wallets have seen rapid adoption, especially in emerging markets, their usability has often been constrained to closed-loop systems or domestic acceptance environments. By linking wallets directly to a global card acceptance network, the partnership seeks to narrow that gap.

For wallet providers, the integration is expected to reduce time-to-market and simplify technical implementation. TerraPay said the launch process will be supported through Xend, its global payment interoperability platform, which connects banks, wallets and money transfer organisations across more than 150 countries.

“At TerraPay, our mission is to make every wallet roam to work anywhere, just like your card does,” said Ambar Sur, Founder and CEO of TerraPay. “Our collaboration with Mastercard takes that mission a step further by bringing true payment interoperability to wallets globally, enabling them to pay at millions of acceptance points.”

Mastercard positioned the partnership as part of its broader strategy to support digital wallet innovation and financial inclusion, particularly in regions where mobile wallets serve as a primary financial access point.

“At Mastercard, we are enabling innovation and global reach for digital wallets, which serve as important drivers of financial inclusion,” said Prakriti Singh, Executive Vice President, Core Payments, Mastercard, EEMEA. “Collaborations with key ecosystem players like TerraPay play a key role in scaling impact and simplifying implementation.”

As wallets increasingly compete with cards for everyday payments, partnerships such as this signal a convergence between card networks and wallet infrastructure, aimed at extending acceptance while preserving user experience and scale.