QR Code Payments - Singapore to Indonesia and Malaysia

If you’re planning to expand your business operations to Indonesia or Malaysia, you can now accept retail payments from the two countries through QR Code payments.

Indonesia

On 17 November 2023 Bank Indonesia (BI) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) launched the cross-border quick response (QR) payment linkage between the two countries. Cross-border payments are enabled by using a banking application to scan the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard (QRIS) or Network for Electronic Transfers (NETS) QR code facilitating payments in Indonesian Rupiah or Singapore Dollar.

The QRIS system was created by BI and the Indonesian Payment System Association.

MAS Managing Director Ravi Menon and Bank Indonesia (BI) Governor Perry Warjiyo announced the launch of cross-border QR payments linkage between the two countries at the Singapore Fintech Festival 2023 in November. This launch followed their signing of a Memorandum of Understanding to promote bilateral transactions in local currency for both central banks in August of the same year.

Malaysia

MAS, alongside Bank Negara Malaysia, the country’s central bank, launched cross-border QR payments in March 2023, allowing seamless linkage of DuitNow QR and NETS QR codes. This allows your business to support cross-border physical payments through QR code scanning, online e-commerce payments, and even make person-to-person funds transfer.

MAS is also in the midst of trials for a new payment method, the Singapore Quick Response Code (SGQR+), which will allow businesses to accept even more digital payment methods, including GrabPay, ShopeePay and WeChat, on a single QR code for its over 239,000 merchant users.

With more plans to interlink cross-border QR payment systems in the Southeast Asian region, this payment method that started trending during the pandemic is expected to increase in volume from 13 billion users in 2023 to 90 billion users in 2028.