Marine Payment Platforms: What They Do and How to Choose One

Marine payment platforms are services that shipping companies use to handle marine payments, paying crew, port agents and suppliers in many countries from one account instead of sending separate bank transfers for each bill.

Six providers with a maritime payments offer are MarTrust, ShipMoney, SUNRATE, Maritime Pay, Mizzen Ka-ching and Nium, and each is built mainly for the company paying out.

They matter because one voyage creates many small payments in different currencies, often to people without a local bank account.

A crew member may need cash at the next port, while an agent wants fees settled before the vessel sails, and a platform lets you approve and track both.

The right choice depends on the job you need most: crew pay, port bills or supplier invoices. If you are an Indian ship manager, port agent or crewing firm collecting fees from overseas principals, you need a receiving route instead.

Most maritime payment platforms cover the same three jobs (crew payments, port bills and supplier invoices), but each was built around one of them first.

Crew wage remittances home to India are personal transfers for the seafarer, separate from the business fees you collect.

For port bills, the agent sends an estimate, you fund it, and the agent pays local costs and sends a final account.

Six providers describe a maritime payments offer, and these marine payment platforms each lead with a different job. Ask every vendor you shortlist for a written quote.

1. MarTrust

Best for

ship owners and managers paying crew and port agents together.

MarTrust is a maritime payments provider and part of The Marcura Group. Crew get an account and debit card, while MarTrust Pay, released in October 2026, lets your office pay suppliers, port agents and vendors.

MarTrust Corporation Limited is an Authorised Electronic Money Institution regulated by the UK Financial Conduct Authority.

Key features

• The Crew Account turns cash to master into digital pay, so seafarers can draw salary and cash to master on a MarTrust debit card instead of cash held on board.
• MarTrust Pay connects directly with DA-Desk, so a port bill approved in that tool can move to payment without someone retyping the bank details.

Pros

• Beneficiary pre-screening, payment file cleaning and automated bank detail verification run before money leaves, so fewer of your port and supplier payments bounce back for wrong details.
• Vendor payments go out in over 130 currencies, with API and SFTP links for matching payments to records, so your finance team can tie each payment to its invoice.

Cons

• MarTrust Pay was released in October 2026, so it has little track record yet as a supplier and port agent payment tool compared with the crew products.
• Safeguarded funds are not covered by the UK Financial Services Compensation Scheme, so check how your balances are protected before you hold large sums on the platform.

2. ShipMoney

Best for

fleets wanting crew cards and port bills from one provider.

ShipMoney is a digital payment platform for maritime crew pay and corporate payments. Seafarers receive wages on a prepaid Visa account they can use for ATM cash, card-to-card transfers and money sent home.

Key features

• The corporate side handles port disbursements, bunker and fuel suppliers, ship chandlers, repairs, insurance, charter payments and drydock milestones, so most non-crew spending for a vessel sits in one place.
• Crew cards cover wages, onboard expenses, advances and companion cards for family, with support around the clock for seafarers who hit a problem in port.

Pros

• Funds arrive in more than 160 countries across 130+ currencies, so you can pay a crew drawn from many nations without opening separate local accounts for each one.
• Direct links with 20+ Tier-1 banks and guidance on API and ERP feeds help your finance system send payment files without manual uploads for every voyage.

Cons

• Money crew send home can run through partners such as Western Union and MoneyGram, so the timing and cost of those transfers depend on the partner service used.

3. SUNRATE

Best for

operators wanting payroll cards with supplier payouts.

SUNRATE is a global payment and treasury platform for businesses, founded in 2016. It launched a maritime payments solution at Sea Asia on 25 March 2025. Seafarers are paid onto SUNRATE commercial cards, and your team can pay suppliers and crew travel costs from the same account.

Key features

• Salaries land on commercial cards that support overseas transfers, card-to-card payments and online spending, so crew can move money home or spend it without a local bank account.
• Payouts reach over 130 currencies in 190+ countries and regions, so one account can pay suppliers and crew travel costs in many countries.

Pros

• SUNRATE also offers a global collection product that can receive money in more than 30 currencies, so one provider can cover both paying out and collecting abroad.
• Crew payroll, travel expenses and supplier payments sit with one provider, so a smaller fleet office can run all three from one login and one approval flow.

Cons

• Its maritime offer centres on crew payroll, travel expenses and supplier payments, so a ship manager running many port disbursement accounts may want a dedicated port tool alongside it.

4. Maritime Pay

Best for

smaller operators wanting bank-to-bank crew payroll and port fees.

Maritime Pay is a payments platform for vessel operations that offers one place to manage crew payroll and supplier payments worldwide. Payroll goes bank to bank in batches, and supplier invoices and port agent fees are screened before they settle.

Key features

• Batch crew payroll with automated matching of each payment to its record lets your team pay a full crew in one run and see what settled without a spreadsheet.
• Supplier invoices and port agent fees are screened before settlement, which adds a check against paying the wrong party during a busy port call.

Pros

• Exchange margins and fees are disclosed before payments are sent, across 130+ currencies with real-time pricing, so you can see the full cost of each batch before you approve it.
• Once you are approved, you get a dedicated named safeguarded account at a Tier-1 bank, which keeps your payroll funds in an account set aside for your company.

Cons

• Crew digital wallets are listed as coming soon, so crew payment today is by bank transfer and each seafarer needs an account that can receive it.

5. Mizzen Ka-ching

Best for

ship managers and agents running many disbursement accounts.

Mizzen Ka-ching is a cash management system for the maritime industry, built by Mizzen Digital. It tracks disbursement account transactions, port expenses, forecasts and approvals, and routes payments through fintech partners with SWIFT copies attached automatically.

Key features

• Approval hierarchies and cash forecasting sit on top of disbursement account activity, so a manager can see what each port call will cost before the money goes out.
• Payables, receivables, account matching and fund transfers run in one system, with real-time tracking of each payment, which helps when a principal or agent asks where a transfer is.

Pros

• Automated money laundering and sanctions checks run on payments, so your compliance team spends less time screening each port supplier by hand.
• The system is ISO-certified and audited, which gives your auditors and principals a recognised standard to point to when they review your controls.

Cons

• Its tools centre on disbursement accounts and cash control, so crew payroll and seafarer cards would sit with another provider if your fleet needs them.

6. Nium

Best for

operators wanting payout technology to build their own crew flow.

Nium is a Singapore-based global payments company that announced a maritime payments solution on 17 May 2021. It offers payroll payouts, vendor payments, an eWallet and Visa cards through one app.

Bernhard Schulte Shipmanagement was its first maritime user, with branded multi-currency debit cards for crew.

Key features

• Payouts reach more than 100 countries, 65 or more in real time, to bank accounts, Visa and UnionPay cards and Alipay wallets, so crew can choose how they receive pay.
• The offer comes as an integrated technology stack, so a manager can plug payroll payouts, vendor payments and the eWallet into the systems it already runs.

Pros

• A supplementary family card lets a seafarer share wages with family at home without a separate transfer, which removes one step from sending money home.
• Payouts can go out in currencies including USD, EUR, GBP and CAD, so one provider can cover crews who want to be paid in different currencies.

Cons

• The maritime offer was announced in May 2021, so its scope and availability may have changed since, which is worth checking before you plan crew payroll around it.

Start with the job that causes you the most trouble today. If crew pay is the pain, compare cards and wallets; if port calls are, compare how each tool handles a disbursement account from estimate to final bill.

Then put the same short set of questions to every vendor you shortlist.

• Licence and entity: Ask which company holds your money and under which regulator. MarTrust names its entity and FCA number on its site.
• Fees and exchange margin: Ask for a written quote covering transfer fees and the exchange margin on each currency you pay in.
• Crew access: Check how seafarers reach their pay in a port with no partner bank, whether by card, ATM or app.
• Port workflow: See whether the platform links to the tools your agents already use, such as DA-Desk.
• Checks before payment: Ask how bank details, sanctions and duplicate invoices are checked before money leaves.
• Systems: Confirm whether payment files come from your enterprise resource planning (ERP) system by API or have to be uploaded by hand.

Whichever you shortlist, each one should pass the licence and fee questions above before you move crew or port payments onto it.

The platforms above pay out.

If you run an Indian ship management, port agency or crewing firm, your problem is the reverse: you invoice a principal in Greece, Singapore or Norway and need the money to reach India with the right paperwork.

The general guide to receive international payments covers the basics.

The payer platforms above may send that money; the Indian records come from the account that receives it in India. That account receives the funds, converts them and produces the records your bank and tax filings rely on.

Ship management and port agency fees as an export of services

Fees you charge an overseas principal can count as an export of services under goods and services tax (GST) law when all five conditions are met:

1. You are in India.
2. Your client is outside India.
3. The place of supply is outside India.
4. You are paid in foreign currency, or in rupees where the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) allows it.
5. You and your client are not just branches of the same company.

When those conditions hold, the supply is zero-rated, which means you can export without paying integrated tax if you file a Letter of Undertaking (LUT) on Form GST RFD-11 before you export the service.

The difference between export of services vs export of goods matters here, because agency work on a vessel in an Indian port can still raise place-of-supply questions.

Receiving through SWIFT or through a receiving account

There are two common routes.

A principal can send a SWIFT wire quoting your SWIFT code straight to your Indian bank, or pay into a local account in its own currency, from which the rupees are converted and sent to you.

Both work; they differ in fees along the way and in how much paperwork you chase.

Where we fit

With Xflow, your principal pays into a receiving account set up for you using a local transfer, and we send the rupees to your Indian bank account.

Purpose codes for maritime receipts

Every inward payment carries an RBI purpose code that says what the money is for, and your bank or provider assigns it.

No RBI code is named ship management, port agency or crewing, so the code depends on what each invoice actually covers.

These RBI receipt codes sit in the shipping and transport group:

• P0213: other transportation services, covering stevedoring, demurrage and port handling charges. Confirm the code with your bank for each invoice.
• P1002: trade related services commission, for commission on exports or imports.
• P1003: operational leasing services without crew, which includes charter hire.

If your invoice mixes agency fees with recharged port costs, tell your bank or provider which part is which, since the wrong code can hold up the export record later.

Charter hire billed without crew falls under operational leasing services without crew.

eFIRA for maritime receipts

An eFIRA is the electronic form of a Foreign Inward Remittance Advice, the bank record that proves money came into India from abroad.

You keep it for each receipt because it gives you digital proof of the inward remittance and a clear audit trail for your accounts and tax reporting.

What you get from us

Xflow users can download an eFIRA within 24 hours of every withdrawal, at no extra cost.

The 9 and 12 month realisation period

From 1 October 2026, the RBI requires services exporters to bring the full invoice value into India within nine months of the invoice date, or twelve months if the export is invoiced or settled in rupees.

Your bank can extend this if you ask and give reasons.

The same rules allow you to set off export receivables against import payables to the same overseas party or its group or associate companies, within the allowed period.

If you are a port agent who pays costs on a principal's behalf, ask your bank how this applies.

At Xflow, we help Indian businesses receive money from abroad.

As of February 2026, we hold final Payment Aggregator Cross Border (PA-CB) authorisation from the RBI. We don't pay crew or vendors; for maritime firms we work on collecting fees from overseas principals.

How your principal pays

You open receiving accounts in 25+ currencies, and your principal pays by a local transfer in its own country. Withdrawals reach your Indian bank account on the next business day before 12:00 PM.

What you pay us

Our pricing uses the mid-market rate. On Starter, the fee is a flat USD 12 for invoices up to USD 2,000 and 0.6% above that; on Growth, it is a flat USD 20 up to USD 5,000 and 0.4% above.

Invoices of USD 10,000 and more get custom pricing. We charge the variable fee as an FX mark-up, and GST does not apply to it.

Limits you should know

RBI rules cap each transaction through a PA-CB at ₹25 lakh (RBI Master Direction on Payment Aggregators, para 11(d), checked 27 October 2026), so plan large charter or hire invoices with that cap in mind.