As their strategic partnership has brought successful results in the U.S. market, MoneyGram and Plaid now move on to European countries with their joint open banking offering.
MoneyGram, the global payments network, and Plaid, the fintech data infrastructure provider, are expanding their pay-by-bank service to key European markets after a successful U.S. deployment.
In Europe, the integration allows MoneyGram customers to link and authenticate their bank accounts via Plaid’s open banking technology, giving them a seamless, secure way to fund domestic and cross-border transfers.
This extension builds on their prior U.S. partnership, in which MoneyGram integrated Plaid’s open banking APIs to allow customers to pay directly from their bank accounts rather than using cards or cash. That partnership aimed to improve funding flows, reduce friction, and lower costs. In the U.S., the service reportedly saw positive uptake and customer adoption, validating the model and giving both firms confidence to expand globally.
According to MoneyGram’s CEO, Anthony Soohoo, the push into Europe underscores their goal to help customers “save time, effort and money” through more seamless cross-border transfers. Plaid’s payments head, Brian Dammeir, added that while the first phase of open banking focused on empowering consumers, the next wave of innovation is centred on enabling smoother movement of money both within Europe and beyond.
By bringing pay-by-bank to European markets, MoneyGram and Plaid are positioning themselves at the forefront of open banking-driven payments. Their U.S. experience demonstrates that direct bank funding can gain traction, and this move aligns with broader trends: as digital wallet adoption grows globally and real-time bank-based payments become more common, the reliance on traditional card rails may further erode. The partnership could accelerate the shift toward bank-centric flows in cross-border payments.
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