Thailand, Singapore link real-time payment systems in world first
Thailand’s PromptPay was linked with Singapore’s PayNow on Thursday, marking the world’s first bridge between national real-time payment systems.
The linkage allows customers of participating banks in Thailand and Singapore to transfer funds of up to THB25,000 or S$1,000 daily across the two countries, using just a mobile number. The funds will flow seamlessly and securely between customers’ accounts in Thailand and Singapore.
The linkage is the culmination of years of collaboration between the Bank of Thailand (BOT) and Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the payment system operators, and bankers.
Transfers will be completed within a matter of minutes, representing a marked improvement over the average of 1-2 working days needed by most cross-border remittance solutions.
The participating banks have committed to benchmark their fees against the market. The fees will be affordably priced and transparently displayed to senders before confirming their transfers.
Senders will also be able to view the applicable foreign exchange charges before sending their funds, with these rates benchmarked closely to prevailing market rates.
The PromptPay-PayNow linkage is a collaboration under the Asean Payment Connectivity initiated in 2019 and closely aligns with efforts by the G20, Financial Stability Board, and other international standard-setting bodies to facilitate faster, cheaper, more inclusive and more transparent cross-border payment arrangements.
BOT and MAS will progressively scale the PromptPay-PayNow linkage to include more participants and extend the transfer limits to facilitate business transactions.
