Cross-border payments company Afriex has entered a sponsor and settlement banking agreement with Global Innovations Bank (GIB), the companies said on Monday, as Afriex works to expand its international payments infrastructure.

The agreement gives Afriex faster settlement times, broader regulatory coverage and access to global U.S. dollar accounts to support its business-to-business payments platform, which serves customers moving money across more than 35 countries.

Afriex said it processes more than $600 million in payment volume annually. The company started as a consumer remittance service before shifting toward providing payments infrastructure for remittance firms, payroll providers, e-commerce platforms, fintechs and banks.

Under the deal, GIB will act as a sponsor and settlement bank for Afriex, a role that typically involves providing the regulated banking relationships fintech companies need to move money and access payment networks.

Afriex said the arrangement would also expand its regulatory coverage and improve operational resilience as its transaction volumes grow. The partnership took effect in the second quarter of 2026, according to Afriex.

Afriex Chief Executive Tope Alabi said building global payments infrastructure requires more than adding new payment corridors and involves developing banking foundations that make transactions faster and more scalable for customers.

“Building global payment infrastructure isn’t just about adding more corridors—it’s about building the banking foundation that makes every transaction faster, more reliable, and easier for our customers to scale,” said Tope Alabi, Founder and CEO of Afriex.

“Global Innovations Bank understands the complexity of cross-border payments because their team has lived it firsthand. Their experience and long-term approach make them an ideal partner as we continue building the infrastructure powering the next generation of global fintech.”

Alex Goody, Chief Product Officer at Global Innovations Bank, said his team’s experience in cross-border payments gave it an appreciation of what Afriex had built, citing the company’s compliance program and technology infrastructure.

“Our team has spent years solving the challenges of cross-border money movement,” said Alex Goody, Chief Product Officer at Global Innovations Bank.

“That experience gives us a deep appreciation for what Afriex has built. Their disciplined compliance program, strong technical infrastructure, and focus on emerging markets make them exactly the kind of fintech we want to help scale.”

GIB is a banking partner that works with fintech companies, founded by a team with a background in the remittance industry, according to the bank’s description of itself.

Afriex already works with other banking partners, including Choice Bank in Kenya and United Bank for Africa in Nigeria, as part of what the company describes as a strategy to build a global network combining local banking expertise with international settlement capability.

With the addition of GIB, Afriex’s banking partnerships now span the United States, Nigeria, Kenya and other markets.

Afriex said the new relationship with GIB would also support future plans to introduce treasury, foreign exchange and global account services over the coming year, though it did not provide further details or a timeline for those products.

The company’s application programming interface, or API, combines local payment licenses with global banking connections, which Afriex says allows businesses to launch international payment products without building their own infrastructure in each market.

Afriex is backed by startup accelerator Y Combinator and is registered with the U.S. Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, or FinCEN, as a money services business, according to the company.

Sponsor banking arrangements are a common structure in the fintech industry, in which a licensed bank provides smaller companies with access to payment rails, card networks and regulatory infrastructure that they would otherwise be unable to access directly.

Such partnerships have become more prominent as regulators in the United States and elsewhere have increased scrutiny of the relationships between fintech firms and their banking partners.

The cross-border payments sector has drawn increased investment in recent years as demand has grown for faster and cheaper ways to move money internationally, particularly to and from emerging markets.

Companies in the sector have said that securing reliable banking relationships is one of the central operational challenges they face, given the compliance requirements involved in international money transfers.