TerraPay Appoints Visa Veteran Ralph Koker as Global Head of Products

Global money movement company TerraPay appointed Visa veteran Ralph Koker as global head of products.

In his new role, Koker will refine TerraPay’s product strategy, spearhead its go-to-market initiatives, and help the company scale its service offerings and strengthen its client relationships on a global scale, the company said in a Tuesday (Sept. 3) press release.

“His strategic insights and deep-rooted experience in product innovation will prove to be vital as we continue to elevate our offerings and deliver unparalleled value to our customers,” Ani Sane, co-founder and chief business officer at TerraPay, said in the release.

Koker was most recently a member of the global money movement team at Visa, a company he joined in 2011. In that role, he focused on defining strategic growth initiatives and enhancing customer services.

Before joining Visa, Koker was with FIS, where he held pivotal roles in Manila, Hong Kong and Bangkok, per the release.

“I am honored to join TerraPay during this transformative phase,” Koker said in the release. “The opportunity to contribute to TerraPay’s mission of digitizing global money movement resonates deeply with me, and I look forward to driving innovation and growth alongside this talented team.”

Koker joins TerraPay at a time when the company has been enhancing its capabilities and expanding its market.

On Aug. 20, the company said it teamed up with five digital wallet operators to facilitate cross-border payments and money movement. The five wallet operators participating in the new Wallet Interoperability Council — Airtel, bKash, MPESA, Nequi and Sama Money — will use TerraPay’s technology to facilitate the expansion of their wallets from local payment solutions to global ones.

In July, TerraPay partnered with Swift to enable financial institutions to send money to mobile wallets via the Swift system. This arrangement applies to 2.1 billion mobile wallets worldwide and is designed to enhance the cross-border payments experience for both businesses and consumers.

The first half of 2024 has been marked by technological advancements and strategic initiatives aimed at reducing transaction costs as a key way to spur greater interoperability and financial inclusion, TerraPay Chief Operating Officer Ram Sundaram told PYMNTS in an interview posted in July.

“There are two ways you can increase revenue: either by charging a customer more or by reducing your costs,” Sundaram said. “And the use of technology in reducing costs is something that is easier to do than trying to charge the customer more.”