In pursuit of the commitment to foster financial empowerment, financial independence, and inclusion across the world, TerraPay, the global payments infrastructure company, today announced a strategic partnership with BRAC Bank, one of Bangladesh’s fast-growing banks. Through this association, non-resident Bangladeshis living and working away from home, in other countries, will be able to send real-time digital cross-border payments to their friends and families, using TerraPay’s interoperability platform.

Currently, around 13 million Bangladeshi workers living abroad send close to UD$ 22.1 billion yearly in remittances to Bangladesh, contributing significantly to the country’s economic growth. Most Bangladeshi migrants are blue-collar professionals who struggle to find convenient ways to send money to their families on a regular basis. They are faced with challenges like high costs of remittance, fluctuating forex rates, or multiple transaction fees. This increasingly expensive process pushes them to find alternative routes, like informal channels that do not guarantee any security or transparency. With TerraPay and BRAC joining forces, non-resident Bangladeshis will now have access to a secure, real-time, and affordable passage that allows them to send money to their loved ones, seamlessly.

The partnership will enable BRAC Bank to leverage TerraPay's well-entrenched merchant partner networks globally (with due regulatory coverage) with payouts to 4.5Bn+ bank accounts and 1.5Bn+ mobile wallets. Additionally, TerraPay will be able to leverage BRAC Bank’s strong presence amongst more than 1.1 million customers and also tap into the esteemed Global Alliance for Banking on Values (GABV) network; with access to 6 financial institutions operating in key regions serving more than 60 million customers. The collective goal of actualizing a cashless society by creating an inclusive ecosystem for all drives this partnership. This opens doors to BRAC’s thriving and extensive ecosystem of merchants, corporates, and SMEs, to use TerraPay’s adaptive and safe payments technology, boosting global financial interoperability and inclusion.

Through this partnership, TerraPay ensures real-time automated deposits into the accounts of BRAC Bank customers in Bangladesh. At the same time, customers will also be able to deposit remittances directly to Bangladesh’s leading mobile wallet bKash, a subsidiary of BRAC Bank.

The Bangladesh government is encouraging residents to send remittance/payments through legal channels, the remittance beneficiaries of the migrants will get a 2.5% incentive from the Government. Additionally, for remittances deposited to a BRAC Bank account, the bank’s customers can use the mobile app, Astha, to make utility payments, insurance and loan installations, pay credit card and phone bills as well as send funds to any bank account or mobile wallet within the country. They can also withdraw their cash at any ATM across the country. Besides, transfer through bKash would allow more than 50 million bKash users to receive instant remittance globally through 200,000 agents throughout Bangladesh.

Speaking about this partnership, Ambar Sur, Founder & CEO, TerraPay, said, “TerraPay’s state-of-the-art interoperability platform allows partners to be globally connected to the company’s wide network of 4Bn+ banks and 1.5Bn+ mobile wallets, thereby expanding and deepening their customer reach. The region of Bangladesh is an emerging market with tremendous untapped potential and the payments segment is no exception. With TerraPay’s entry, Bangladeshi diaspora across the globe will have access to affordable, secure, and swift means to send money back home in real-time."

“Remittance is one of our prime focused businesses and we’re relentlessly working hard to facilitate its continuous growth. We partnered with TerraPay, one of the leading global real-time cross-border payments service providers as they, like us, offer their customers the best service experience, supported by the most advanced technologies” said Selim R.F. Hussain, MD & CEO of BRAC Bank.