Enhancing Cross-Border Payment Connectivity in Singapore and ASEAN

Cross-border payments remain essential to international trade, remittances and increasingly digital economies, but moving money between jurisdictions can still involve higher costs, slower processing and greater complexity than domestic payments.

The global effort to address these challenges has moved beyond identifying the problem. Under the G20 Roadmap for Enhancing Cross-Border Payments, international bodies and participating jurisdictions are now focused on implementing measures intended to make cross-border payments faster, cheaper, more accessible and more transparent.

Singapore has been actively involved in this shift through bilateral payment linkages, ASEAN’s Regional Payment Connectivity initiative and the development of multilateral infrastructure such as Project Nexus.

Why Cross-Border Payment Connectivity Matters

Domestic instant payment systems have transformed how individuals and businesses transfer money within many countries.

Cross-border payments are more difficult because different jurisdictions may use different payment infrastructures, technical standards, currencies and regulatory frameworks.

This can create friction in areas such as:

• payment speed;
• transaction and foreign exchange costs;
• access to payment services;
• transparency over fees and payment status;
• data exchange between institutions;
• anti-money laundering and regulatory requirements; and
• interoperability between domestic payment systems.

Improving connectivity does not mean removing these regulatory safeguards. Instead, the objective is to make different payment systems work together more efficiently while maintaining appropriate financial crime, operational and regulatory controls.

The G20 Roadmap Has Moved From Planning to Implementation

The G20 made enhancing cross-border payments a priority in 2020.

The Financial Stability Board (FSB), working with the Committee on Payments and Market Infrastructures (CPMI) and other international organisations, subsequently developed a global roadmap addressing the key frictions affecting cross-border payments.

The Roadmap focuses on four main challenges:

• cost;
• speed;
• access; and
• transparency.

Quantitative targets were subsequently established across wholesale payments, retail payments and remittances, with many of the targets set for the end of 2027.

For example, the targets seek to have 75% of cross-border retail payments make funds available to recipients within one hour of payment initiation by the end of 2027, with the remainder completed within one business day.

However, improving the underlying policy framework does not automatically translate into immediate improvements for users.

The FSB’s 2025 assessment found that most of the international policy work under the Roadmap had been completed, but implementation at jurisdiction level remains important to achieve tangible improvements in payment outcomes.

Further information on the current targets and implementation work is available from the official Financial Stability Board.

Singapore’s Role in Regional Payment Connectivity

Singapore’s approach to cross-border connectivity has included both bilateral payment linkages and broader regional cooperation.

These initiatives generally build on domestic payment infrastructure rather than requiring individuals and businesses to adopt an entirely separate payment system for every cross-border transaction.

PayNow-PromptPay: Singapore and Thailand

Singapore and Thailand launched the PayNow-PromptPay linkage in April 2021.

The connection between Singapore’s PayNow and Thailand’s PromptPay was an important early example of linking national real-time retail payment systems.

Customers of participating financial institutions can make cross-border transfers using familiar identifiers such as a registered mobile number.

PayNow-DuitNow: Singapore and Malaysia

The original version of this article described the PayNow-DuitNow linkage as a future initiative.

That linkage is now operational.

Bank Negara Malaysia and MAS launched the real-time payment systems linkage between Malaysia’s DuitNow and Singapore’s PayNow in November 2023.

The linkage enables customers of participating financial institutions to make person-to-person cross-border fund transfers using a recipient’s mobile number or Virtual Payment Address.

It demonstrates how interoperability between existing domestic payment systems can reduce some of the friction associated with traditional cross-border transfers.

Singapore and Indonesia: Cross-Border QR Payments

Singapore has also developed cross-border QR payment connectivity with Indonesia.

Launched in November 2023, the linkage enables customers of participating financial institutions to use their existing mobile banking applications to scan QRIS codes in Indonesia or NETS QR codes in Singapore.

QR interoperability represents a different form of payment connectivity from person-to-person PayNow linkages. It is particularly relevant to retail transactions because consumers can use familiar payment applications when making purchases across participating jurisdictions.

Regional Payment Connectivity Across ASEAN

Cross-border payment cooperation in Southeast Asia is no longer limited to individual bilateral arrangements.

In 2022, the central banks of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand established the Regional Payment Connectivity (RPC) initiative.

The initiative is intended to strengthen cooperation on cross-border payment connectivity and support more accessible and efficient regional payments.

It has since expanded.

By April 2025, nine ASEAN central banks had joined the initiative, with Cambodia joining Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Brunei Darussalam and Lao PDR.

The expansion demonstrates a broader regional shift toward interoperable payment infrastructure rather than relying exclusively on isolated bilateral connections.

For ASEAN, greater payment connectivity can support activities such as:

• regional trade;
• tourism;
• cross-border e-commerce;
• remittances; and
• transactions between businesses and consumers in different member states.

From Bilateral Linkages to Project Nexus

Bilateral payment connections can improve transactions between two jurisdictions, but building a separate technical integration for every possible pair of payment systems becomes increasingly complex as more countries participate.

Project Nexus was developed to explore a multilateral approach.

The project was led by the BIS Innovation Hub Singapore Centre and developed a standardised framework for connecting multiple domestic instant payment systems.

Under the Nexus model, a participating instant payment system would not need to build a completely separate connection with every other participating country. Instead, a single connection to the Nexus platform is intended to provide access to other payment systems participating in the network.

The BIS Innovation Hub’s work on Project Nexus has now concluded.

In 2025, the central banks of India, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand incorporated Nexus Global Payments in Singapore to take the scheme toward live implementation.

The development marks a shift from testing whether multilateral instant payment connectivity is technically feasible toward building the governance and operational arrangements needed to implement it.

What Makes Payment Systems Interoperable?

Cross-border connectivity involves more than connecting two technical systems.

The CPMI’s work on cross-border payments highlights several areas that can affect interoperability.

Compatible Payment Infrastructure

Payment systems need technical and operational arrangements that allow transactions and information to move reliably between participating jurisdictions.

The growing use of domestic instant payment systems creates opportunities to connect existing infrastructure rather than developing entirely new payment rails.

Consistent Data and Messaging

Payment information needs to be structured so that participating institutions can process and interpret it consistently.

International work has therefore increasingly focused on harmonising ISO 20022 data requirements for cross-border payments.

More consistent payment data can support automation, reduce processing friction and improve the information available for compliance checks.

Regulatory and Supervisory Alignment

Payment providers operating across borders can face different legal, regulatory and supervisory requirements in each jurisdiction.

Greater alignment can reduce unnecessary friction, but interoperability does not mean that participating countries must abandon their own regulatory requirements.

Payment providers still need to comply with applicable licensing, AML/CFT, sanctions, data and other regulatory obligations.

Public and Private Sector Cooperation

Cross-border payment infrastructure involves central banks, regulators, payment system operators, banks, non-bank payment service providers and technology providers.

Effective connectivity therefore depends on coordination between both the public and private sectors.

Connectivity Does Not Remove Regulatory Obligations

Faster and more interconnected payment infrastructure can improve the user experience, but it does not remove the regulatory obligations applying to payment service providers.

In Singapore, cross-border money transfer service is one of the regulated payment services under the Payment Services Act 2019.

Businesses intending to provide regulated cross-border payment services should therefore determine whether an MAS payment services licence is required and what ongoing compliance requirements apply.

Depending on the business model and applicable statutory thresholds, a provider may fall within the Standard Payment Institution or Major Payment Institution licensing framework, unless an exemption applies.

Providers may also need appropriate controls covering areas such as:

• customer due diligence;
• anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism;
• transaction monitoring;
• sanctions screening;
• record keeping;
• safeguarding of customer money where applicable; and
• regulatory reporting.

Technical interoperability and regulatory compliance should therefore develop together rather than being treated as separate considerations.

The Next Stage of Cross-Border Payment Connectivity

The cross-border payment landscape has changed considerably since the original G20 Roadmap was developed in 2020.

The focus is increasingly shifting from identifying the building blocks for better payments toward implementing interoperable infrastructure, harmonised standards and regulatory frameworks.

Singapore’s bilateral payment linkages, participation in ASEAN’s Regional Payment Connectivity initiative and involvement in Project Nexus illustrate this transition.

There is still work to be done. International assessments indicate that improvements in end-user outcomes have not progressed as quickly as originally intended.

However, the infrastructure and policy foundations being developed across Singapore, ASEAN and the wider international payment ecosystem provide a clearer pathway toward faster, more accessible and more transparent cross-border payments.

How Alder Corporate Services Can Help

Greater regional payment connectivity creates opportunities for FinTech companies and payment service providers, but businesses must still establish whether their proposed activities fall within Singapore’s regulated payment services framework.

Alder Corporate Services can assist with:

• assessing applicable payment service and licence requirements;
• supporting Standard Payment Institution and Major Payment Institution licence applications;
• reviewing application and supporting documentation;
• assisting with MAS correspondence relating to licence applications; and
• providing ongoing regulatory and compliance support after licensing.

Businesses developing cross-border payment services in Singapore can contact Alder Corporate Services to discuss the applicable licensing and regulatory requirements.

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