Unlocking Cross-Border Real-Time Payments in Asia: From Fragmentation to Harmonisation

Industry leaders call for interoperable standards, merchant inclusion, and coordinated regulation to drive the next phase of real-time payments (RTP) growth across Asia.

Overview

At the MAG Payments Summit - Singapore 25, a roundtable of merchants, payment service providers (PSPs), and regulators convened to address one of Asia’s most pressing challenges — achieving scalable, interoperable RTP across borders.

Despite significant progress with bilateral linkages led by governments, participants agreed that industry-driven collaboration and harmonised standards will be crucial to unlock RTP’s full potential.

Core Frictions Identified

1. Multi-Market Scalability: Fragmented APIs, differing regulations, and inconsistent operational processes across jurisdictions continue to restrict scalability. A common baseline of interoperability standards is urgently needed.

2. Merchant Onboarding and Know Your Customer (KYC): Varying data formats, screening processes, and documentation requirements create friction and delay cross-border merchant participation.

3. Refunds and Disputes Management: The lack of standardised refund mechanisms across networks leads to delayed resolutions, uncertainty, and poor consumer experiences.

Industry Recommendations

Standardised Refund API: Create a consistent refund protocol across RTP networks to streamline dispute resolution and ensure accountability.

Alias-Based Checkout: Adopt alias-based payment identifiers to simplify customer experiences and enable wallet-to-bank interoperability.

Harmonised Onboarding: Define a baseline ASEAN-wide framework for merchant onboarding that aligns key authentication, authorisation, and settlement standards.

Support for Recurring Payments: Enable recurring and subscription capabilities within RTP systems to foster greater merchant adoption.

Discussion Highlights

Regulator–Industry Coordination: Recognition of progress from initiatives like the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Project Nexus and the Singapore Fintech Association’s Payments Leaders Forum, but participants stressed the need for merchant representation in future working groups.
Layered Standardisation Model: A proposed two-layer approach, foundational infrastructure (settlement, liquidity, connectivity), and industry operations (onboarding, SLAs, screening, refunds).
Operational and Data Friction: A call for standardised data schemas and screening protocols to reduce onboarding inefficiencies.
Balancing Regulation and Innovation: Emphasis on principles-based minimum standards that allow innovation to thrive.
Measurable Impact: The group encouraged collecting tangible data on the economic impact of payments frictions to support regulatory prioritisation.

Key Takeaways and Next Steps

Quantify the Impact: Singapore Fintech Association Payments Committee will develop an industry paper quantifying conversion losses, onboarding delays, and economic inefficiencies.
Include Merchants: Ensure merchant voices are represented in future regional RTP dialogues.
Define Minimum Standards: Pursue a Tripartite Operating Accord among PSPs, the Association of Banks in Singapore (ABS), and regulators.
Expand RTP Use Cases: Extend RTP beyond P2P into P2M to boost adoption and reduce reliance on card networks.
Promote Open RTP Standards: Foster interoperable frameworks balancing innovation, consumer protection, and system integrity.

Conclusion

Asia’s path toward seamless cross-border RTP hinges on collaboration, consistency, and inclusion. A coordinated framework anchored in trust, interoperability, and measurable outcomes will shape the next generation of RTP, one that works for merchants, by merchants, with the industry.