World’s first real-time payment link set up between Singapore and Thailand

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) have recently launched the linkage of Singapore’s PayNow and Thailand’s PromptPay real time retail payment systems. It is the first time such a linkage has been implemented globally.

Therefore, customers of the participating banks in Singapore and Thailand will be able to transfer funds for up to S$1,000 or THB25,000 daily, with conversion into the local currency according to the foreign exchange rate at the time of transfer. Transfers will be completed within a matter of minutes, whereas an average of 1-2 working days is regularly required by most of cross-border remittance solutions.

Three of Singapore’s 12 PayNow banks are participating to this scheme: DBS Bank, OCBC Bank and UOB along with four banks in Thailand including Bangkok Bank, Kasikorn Bank, Krung Thai Bank and Siam Commercial Bank.

The PayNow-PromptPay linkage is a key partnership under ASEAN Payment Connectivity that was initiated in 2019, and closely keeps in line with efforts by the G20 Financial Stability Board and other international standard-setting bodies to facilitate faster, cheaper, more inclusive and transparent cross-border payment arrangements.

MAS and BOT will progressively scale the PayNow-PromptPay linkage to include more participants and extend the transfer limits to facilitate business transactions. The objective is to work with other ASEAN counterparts (starting with Lao PDR, Cambodia, Vietnam) to expand this bilateral linkage into a network of linked retail payment systems across ASEAN. With the rise of the digital economy, Singapore and Thailand aim to empower individuals and businesses in the region with simple, swift and secure cross-border payments through just a few clicks on their mobile phones.

For further information about payment solutions in Asia, feel free to contact our team at contact@orbis-alliance.com.