The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region continues to set the pace for payments innovation. But with that innovation comes complexity, and APAC merchants must navigate a fast-changing and highly fragmented landscape.
MAG spoke with Brian Clark, Director of Product: Payments & Fraud at Minor Hotels, to discuss regulatory trends operational realities shaping payments across the region, and what merchants can do to prepare.
MAG: APAC is often described as one of the most dynamic payments regions in the world. From a merchant perspective, what makes APAC different right now?
Brian: I think the most compelling and interesting element is QR payments. In Thailand alone, over 65% of all payments take place over this medium. Cash is gone, and merchants don't want to accept cards due to the high fees. QR is instant, almost no fees, and fraud is non-existent. There is a lot of work taking place here to bring standardisation across countries, but it is slow-moving. Alternative Payment Methods (APMs) are also unique in this region, as there are just so many of them across the different countries. You want to ensure guests can pay however they want, but when you have 30+ different wallet integrations, testing and rollout is not exactly easy. Another interesting element here is when they are used. True Money is the largest e-wallet in Thailand, but its use is almost exclusively at 7-11 convenience stores for very low-volume transactions. As a luxury hospitality provider, many of these APMs do not see usage for high Average Order Volume (AOV), and we need to be very data-oriented when evaluating what to support by industry type and scale of the business.
MAG: Which regulatory and policy themes should merchants in APAC be paying closest attention to this year?
Brian: We are very closely monitoring the progress of Project Nexus as a key effort. This is a five-country, government-led initiative that would bring much-needed standardisation to cross-border QR payments. Today, customers may or may not be able to pay using this method when traveling, and it is quite confusing. If the customer bank and the merchant bank have partnered, it works; if they have not, it does not. This fragmentation leads many people to just pull out a card to avoid dealing with the problems that may arise, especially if they are uncomfortable with the local language.
Another very interesting space is the advancements in digital money. Hong Kong's stablecoin regime is live, and Singapore finalised a stablecoin framework for qualifying single-currency stablecoins. The Bank of Thailand is also advancing clearer legislation to provide needed clarity for merchants and banks to make it easier to operate using these mediums. This is particularly relevant to Thailand, as Russia is still banned from the SWIFT network, but they are one of the top tourist feeder markets.
MAG: Let’s talk more about real-time payments and QR. Why should merchants care beyond just offering another payment option?
Brian: The costs are less than 1%, the payment success rate is over 90% in hospitality (which is just amazing), and the cash settles instantly, which makes Treasury teams super happy. Additionally, consumer adoption is far higher than card (in Thailand, credit card adoption is only 20-30%, where QR is across almost every user). With that said, refunds are challenging as they are quite manual and lack proper workflows that debit and credit cards provide. We also find it very challenging to shift consumers to this medium, specifically within luxury hospitality. People want their credit card points on high-value transactions. We are rolling out added incentives, like free meals, drinks, or even room upgrades, to entice users over to QR.
MAG: Fraud is another area where regulators are getting more active. What should merchants expect?
Brian: Fraud is a massive concern. The scam centres running out of Cambodia are extremely advanced and operate at scale with relative impunity from the government. It is a $12-$40 billion-a-year industry with over 100k people working in it. This means, as a merchant, we need to invest even more money, effort, and time into fraud solutions to ensure we are managing risk here. For sophisticated merchants, they can develop quite advanced ecosystems here to stay on top, but for merchants that lack a large development presence as part of their business, we really rely on third-party solutions to help. On top of that, being very active on your trusted list, network tokenisation, and metadata you transmit is critical to doing what we can within this space.
APAC is redefining how payments work at scale. For merchants, success demands a deliberate approach to regulation, cross-border interoperability, fraud mitigation, and customer behaviour. Merchants that stay informed and invest strategically are better positioned to reduce friction, control costs, and meet customer expectations – no matter where or how they choose to pay.