News

TerraPay And OMT Launch Cross-Border Payments For Lebanon

Lebanese enterprises gain new access to international markets through the partnership, which offers secure, compliant, and real-time transfers.

Published

12 months ago

September 3, 2025

Nour Nasir

terrapay and omt launch cross-border payments for lebanon

TerraPay, a global money movement company, has partnered with Lebanon’s OMT to introduce a new cross-border payment solution designed for businesses. The service aims to strengthen the position of Lebanese enterprises in the international economy by offering secure, real-time transactions aligned with global compliance standards.

Founded in 2014, TerraPay today connects payments to more than 150 receiving countries and over 210 sending countries, spanning billions of wallets, bank accounts, and cards. OMT, established in 1998, operates Lebanon’s largest retail channel with a network of over 1,400 agents providing more than 200 services nationwide.

The collaboration combines OMT’s extensive domestic network with TerraPay’s international payment infrastructure, giving Lebanese companies a streamlined way to integrate into global trade. Through a secure online portal, users can initiate transfers, track payments, and access financial reports, ensuring both visibility and speed in business operations.

“Partnering with OMT allows us to extend our vision to Lebanon’s business community, giving enterprises the tools they need to transact internationally with confidence, speed, and compliance,” said Bassem Awada, Senior Vice President at TerraPay, adding: “We’re excited to empower growth and unlock new opportunities through this collaboration”.

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OMT sees the move as a vital step for Lebanon’s business ecosystem. “Global commerce requires secure and compliant digital financial solutions,” explained Naji Abou Zeid, CEO of OMT. “Through our partnership with TerraPay, we are enabling Lebanese businesses to operate at the speed and standard of today’s interconnected economy. Whether sourcing raw materials or settling invoices with international partners, they now have access to a solution that is seamless, compliant, cost-effective, and fully interoperable”.

Lebanon is heavily reliant on global trade flows, and this partnership seeks to ease the challenges businesses face when dealing with international payments. By lowering costs, enhancing transparency, and ensuring compliance, TerraPay and OMT aim to create a more inclusive financial system that supports enterprises of all sizes.

Related Topics:FinTech Lebanon OMT TerraPay

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News

Visa’s Return To Syria Starts With A Test And A Bank In Lebanon

Foreign visitors will be the first users to benefit, but whether Syria’s own banks and cardholders follow is still an open question.

Published

2 days ago

August 27, 2026

Dana Saadeh

visa's return to syria starts with a test and a bank in lebanon

Visa is returning to Syria. Its first live international card transaction in the country was a test rather than a launch, and the milestone event ran through a Lebanese bank.

The acquirer (the bank on the merchant’s side of a card payment) was Fransabank Lebanon, with Paymera as the other named partner. Nadim Moujaes, who heads a Fransabank Group subsidiary, describes the test as both the culmination of “longstanding efforts to link Syria back to international payment networks” and “the first step in a larger path”.

Syrian President Ahmed Al-Sharaa makes the first electronic payment in Syria using a @Visa card at a store in Damascus, following the lifting of US sanctions on Syria. pic.twitter.com/lpAN7nQ6Fc

— Tech Magazine (@TechMGZN) August 27, 2026

“We are excited to have successfully tested live transactions today as we plan to enable international visitors to use their Visa cards while in Syria,” says Leila Serhan, Visa’s senior vice president and group country manager for the North Africa, Levant and Pakistan region. Although a significant first step, that plan doesn’t come with a hard date for when a visitor’s card will work normally.

Mohammed Safwat Raslan, governor of the Central Bank of Syria, says the test paves the way for international card acceptance in Syria and that maintaining strong compliance, risk management and operational controls will remain essential. Serhan likewise stresses that Visa has worked within applicable legal, regulatory and compliance requirements. For a test transaction, it seems there was a great deal of attention paid to the rules, with the entire operation being carefully managed.

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The test is the latest step in a sequence that began in December 2025, when Visa announced a strategic roadmap to support Syria’s integration into the global digital economy. In February 2026 it hosted its first industry gathering of banks, ecosystem partners and policymakers in Damascus and, the same month, signed an agreement with Syria’s Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in San Francisco.

Michel Kattouah, Paymera’s CEO, called the test “the return of international card acceptance,” but while that’s positive news, there’s no word yet on when a Syrian bank will issue a Visa card to a Syrian customer.