Travellers can now use QR codes to make payments to merchants between Malaysia and Singapore

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Such payments are possible as DuitNow and NETS QR are connected. Person-to-person (P2P) fund transfers will also be ready by year-end.

A cross-border QR code payment linkage has been launched between Malaysia and Singapore, led by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This linkage allows customers and travellers to make retail payments linked to participating financial institutions by scanning DuitNow QR and NETS QR codes. This enables in-person payments through the scanning of physical QR codes displayed by merchants, and online cross-border e-commerce transactions.

The following are the participating institutions from Malaysia (as at 31 March 2023):

• AmBank Malaysia,
• Boost,
• CIMB Bank,
• Hong Leong Bank,
• Malayan Banking,
• Public Bank,
• Razer Merchant Services,
• TNG Digital, and
• United Overseas Bank Malaysia.

The following are the participating institutions from Singapore (as at 31 March 2023):

• DBS Bank,
• OCBC Bank, and
• UOB.  

This cross-border payments connectivity between the neighbours has been made possible through the collaboration of industry players from both countries, including Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet), Network for Electronic Transfers (Singapore) (NETS), the Association of Banks in Singapore, and participating financial institutions from both countries. It comes in the backdrop of pre-pandemic annual traffic between the two countries averaging 12mn visitors. As such, the payment linkage is expected to help merchants and consumers with a more seamless and efficient means to make and receive payments.

In the next phase, BNM and MAS plan to expand the payment linkage to enable cross-border account-to-account fund transfers and remittances. This will allow users to make real-time fund transfers between Malaysia and Singapore using just the recipient’s mobile phone number via DuitNow and PayNow. This service is expected to go live by end-2023.

BNM Governor Tan Sri Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus noted this development was a significant step in realising the vision of an ASEAN network of fast, efficient and interconnected retail payment systems. She added: "The QR linkage between Malaysia and Singapore will benefit millions of commuters across the Causeway as well as business and leisure travellers. It will also be a boost to retail businesses in both countries."

Managing Director of MAS, Ravi Menon, shared that this latest linkage is an addition to Singapore’s growing set of cross-border payment linkages. He said: "These linkages will help boost cross-border commerce and enable our merchants, especially small businesses to tap on a wider pool of consumers. This QR code linkage between Singapore and Malaysia is an important milestone in ASEAN’s journey towards seamless regional payments connectivity."

For further context, DuitNow QR is the national QR code solution in Malaysia operated by (PayNet). NETS QR is the QR code solution operated by Singapore’s electronic payment network, NETS. Both will now allow merchants to accept payments from customers of different participating banks and e-wallet operators using a unified QR code.

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