Recently, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the National Bank of Malaysia (BNM) jointly announced that the real-time payment system connection between PayNow in Singapore and DuitNow in Malaysia will enable seamless cross-border financial transactions, marking a major leap forward in digital payment cooperation between the two countries.。

At the scene of the FinTech Festival in Singapore, MAS Director Ravi Menon and BNM Governor Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour jointly conducted a cross-border fund transfer, marking the official launch of the initiative.。

The PayNow-DuitNow connection enables instant, secure and economical peer-to-peer cross-border fund transfers between Singapore and Malaysia.。

Not only that, users only need to use the recipient's mobile phone number or virtual payment address (VPA) to send and receive funds of 1,000 Singapore dollars or 3,000 ringgit per day between the two countries.。VPA is an identifier used by non-bank financial institutions in Singapore and is uniquely associated with an individual's bank account。

The service will be rolled out in phases to Singapore customers of Liquid Group, Maybank Singapore Branch, OCBC and UOB, who will gradually expand their eligible user base from now until the end of January 2024 and ensure that customers are familiar with the service.。

For Malaysian users, the service will first be available to all CIMB, Malaya Bank and TNG Digital users, with other financial institutions to follow.。

Following the successful implementation of cross-border QR code payment for merchants in March 2023, real-time payment system connectivity has also been launched.。In March 2023, MAS and BNM opened up a way to pay using QR codes。Through this payment connection, people can scan NETS's QR code and DuitNow's QR code for retail payments.。

NETS-DuitNow QR code payment connection is a major step forward for Singapore and Malaysia to work together to improve cross-border payments。Before the outbreak, the average annual passenger flow between the two countries was about 12 million.。In 2022, P2P (person-to-person) and remittance transactions between Singapore and Malaysia reached S $2.3 billion / RM7.8 billion, showing the huge impact and potential of this enhanced payment connection.。

For the PayNow-DuitNow connection, the innovation, which for the first time includes non-bank financial institutions in both countries, broadens access for more users and is the result of efforts by central banks, payment system operators and participating financial institutions in both countries to improve the cost, speed, access and transparency of cross-border payments.。

Users in Singapore and Malaysia will benefit from the cost-effectiveness, inclusiveness and accessibility of the link, which also coincides with the ASEAN Payments Connectivity Initiative and the Group of 20 (G20) roadmap to strengthen cross-border payments.。

MAS Director General Ravi Menon said: "PayNow-DuitNow connectivity is the culmination of Singapore-Malaysia's shared desire to promote seamless cross-border payments, taking ASEAN one step further towards its vision of regional payments connectivity.。"

Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour, President of BNM, stressed that in countries with strong economic ties like Malaysia and Singapore, fast, secure and economical cross-border payments bring huge benefits to individuals and small businesses.。The PayNow-DuitNow connection enables both sides to achieve shared prosperity while laying the foundation for a scalable cross-border payment network within and outside ASEAN.。