National Bank of Bahrain Taps TerraPay to Expand Cross-Border Payouts
Bahrain's NBB will use its existing Swift link to reach TerraPay's payout network, which spans bank accounts, digital wallets and local payment systems.
Nadia Mansour Nadia Mansour covers fintech across the UAE and MENA for Anecdoted -- digital banking, payments licences and the startups building around them. nadia@anecdoted.com
National Bank of Bahrain has agreed a partnership with TerraPay to widen the range of destinations its customers can send money to. The bank will reach TerraPay's payout network through the Swift connection it already runs, rather than building separate links into each market.
TerraPay's network spans bank accounts, digital wallets and local payment systems. The company says it covers more than 12 billion endpoints.
NBB brings its banking infrastructure, client relationships and regional expertise to the arrangement. TerraPay supplies the payout network itself. Both sides describe the aim as simpler cross-border payouts and a longer list of payment destinations for the bank's clients.
How the flow works
A customer instructs NBB, and the bank pushes the payment over Swift as usual. TerraPay receives that message formatted to ISO 20022, the standard used for financial messaging worldwide, and pays out in real time into an account, a wallet or a domestic scheme in the destination market.
The companies say clients get full transparency on the transfer, and that nothing is deducted from the principal amount along the way.
Why the existing Swift link matters
The model leans on the Swift systems a bank already operates and on RMA key exchange, the process that establishes which counterparties a bank may exchange messages with. Because that plumbing is already in place, a bank can join TerraPay's network without constructing direct connections in every market it wants to reach.
TerraPay says this lowers technical complexity for participating banks and lets them open new payout corridors faster.
Vineet Munot, group head of transaction banking at NBB, said the arrangement gives the bank a way to connect its customers in Bahrain and the region to a wider set of payment destinations, supporting them as their requirements become more global.
Ani Sane, co-founder and chief business officer at TerraPay, said banks want to extend their international payment reach without having to build and maintain a separate connection for every market, wallet and local payment system.
For NBB, the existing Swift link stays at the centre of its cross-border offering, with TerraPay handling the final leg into local rails and wallets.
