MAS Announces PayNow's Linkage with Malaysia's DuitNow

Singapore's MAS and Malaysia's BNM have announced that they will be linking their payment systems PayNow and DuitNow in a phased manner to revolutionize cross-border payments across the two nations.

The linkage of PayNow and DuitNow will get started in the fourth quarter of 2022. This phase will allow the customers of participating financial institutions to make real-time money transfers between Singapore and Malaysia, using just a mobile number. Further, customers will also be able to make retail payments by scanning NETS or DuitNow QR codes displayed at merchants' storefronts.

"Singapore's remittance corridor with Malaysia is our largest remittance corridor; hence, the PayNow-DuitNow linkage will be an important infrastructure to support cross-border payment needs of individuals and businesses, as well as the growing digital economic activity between both countries. The linkage also offers MAS and BNM a valuable opportunity to incorporate the use of distributed ledger and smart contract technologies in the wholesale cross border payments space," said Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer of MAS.

This payments systems linkage will also help travellers between the two countries in a big way. Further phases of linkage will present customers with a wider range of features. It is being said that innovative features such as distributed ledger technology-based solutions could also be explored through this linkage.