The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) have partnered to announce QR codes for payments will now be accepted bilaterally. Users at participating financial firms will now accept in-person payments by scanning a physical code displayed on merchants as well as e-commerce transactions online.
The NETS-DuitNow QR code payment linkage is described as a “key milestone” in the collaboration between Singapore and Malaysia to enhance payment connectivity.
MAS noted that pre-pandemic annual traffic between the two countries averaged around 12 million visitors so facilitating payments makes a lot of sense.
The QR code payment linkage is made possible by various entities in both countries, including Network for Electronic Transfers (Singapore) Pte. Ltd (NETS), the Association of Banks in Singapore, and Payments Network Malaysia Sdn. Bhd. (PayNet). Of course, this includes the support of banks etc.
Going forward, both MAS and BNM plan to expand the digital connectivity to include account-to-account transfers, including real-time transfers using a mobile phone number. This is predicted to launch at the end of this year.
Ravi Menon, Managing Director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said the cross-border linkage will boost e-commerce transactions as well as helping individual merchants. Menon said this is part of ASEAN’s “journey towards seamless regional payments connectivity.”
6. Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Tan Sri Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus concurred with Menon adding they will continue to work closely with their partners to accelerate their digital plans to boost economic and financial integration.