Through the QR payment connectivity, the countries aim to enable payments to be made in a more convenient, fast, secure, and transparent manner at a low cost. Furthermore, the project serves as promotion means for the use of local currencies for both payments and settlements.
The central banks in the ASEAN region have been actively working towards achieving true payment connectivity in the area.
The QR payment linkage project between Thailand and Vietnam was first announced in March 2021, when the Bangkok Bank in cooperation with BOT and SBV launched cross-border QR payments between both countries.
Shortly after, in June 2021, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) partnered to launch the QR payment linkage between Malaysia and Thailand, looking to enable consumers and merchants to make and receive payments in both countries, with the project announced to be implemented in three phases. The first phase consisted in enabling Thai users to use mobile payment apps and scan DuitNow QR codes to make payments to merchants in Malaysia, including for cross-border ecommerce transactions. The second phase was expected at the time to be live in Q4 2021 and to enable Malaysia users to scan Thai QR codes and carry out payments to merchants in Malaysia, whereas the third phase, was expected to go live in Q4 2022 with the linkage being expanded to include cross-border remittances and enable users in both countries to make real-time fund transfers by referencing the recipient’s mobile phone number.
In September 2021, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) announced an additional partnership with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) looking to initiate a phased linkage of Malaysia’s DuitNow and Singapore’s PayNow payment systems. Through the partnership, the two regulators aimed to enable customers of participating financial institutions to make real-time fund transfers between the two countries using a mobile number. Furthermore, the collaboration aimed to give customers the option of making retail payments by scanning DuitNow or NETS QR codes displayed at merchants’ storefronts, with plans on expanding the DuitNow-PayNow linkage to incorporate a wider range of features and participants after launch.
In July 2022, the central banks of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand have announced an agreement to link their payment systems and offer seamless transactions for travellers within the region, by enabling them to make purchases using their own country’s app instead of a local app to make QR code payments. At the time of the announcement, the integration was incomplete, as only Malaysia, Indonesia, and Thailand were already interconnected and had enabled QR codes cross-border payments.
In November 2022, the agreement between the banks was announced to have been signed, with Bank Indonesia (BI), Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), and Bank of Thailand (BOT) having agreed to work towards strengthening and enhancing cooperation on payment connectivity to support faster, cheaper, more transparent, and more inclusive cross-border payments.
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