Central banks in the ASEAN region to develop common cross-border QR payments

The system will enable residents of each country to use their mobile banking app to make QR code-based payments for goods and services when visiting any of the other territories.

The integrated system will enable visitors to another of the participating countries to make transactions in local currency that will then be settled in their own without having to be exchanged via an intermediary currency.

Bank Indonesia, Bank Negara Malaysia, Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and the Bank of Thailand announced that they are preparing to sign a general agreement on payment connectivity that will establish a framework for the system later in 2022 at a seminar during a meeting of G20 finance ministers and central governors in Bali.

Collaboration to accelerate economic recovery

Several countries in the ASEAN region are implementing bilateral cooperation for payment services using QR code and fast payments based on local currency settlement (LCS).

In 2021, Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand have connected their systems. Users from Indonesia can use their mobile payment apps to scan Thai QR Codes to make payments to merchants all over Thailand. Likewise, users from Thailand are now able to use their mobile payment applications to scan QRIS to pay for goods and services at merchants in Indonesia and also use this service for their cross-border e-commerce transactions.

In the future, the central banks want to link their network to other regional clusters and widen the connectivity to real-time bank transfers and possibly central bank digital currencies.