The Crossing · Payments
One QR code, many countries: payments are crossing borders in Asia
Indonesia’s QRIS now works in Singapore, Japan, South Korea and China, and eight Southeast Asian markets offer cross-border QR payments.
Ten Southeast Asian countries have national QR payment systems, and eight markets offer cross-border QR interoperability, according to e-Conomy SEA 2025.
In November 2022, the central banks of Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand agreed to cooperate on regional payment connectivity. By 2025 the National Bank of Cambodia had joined as the ninth central bank signatory.
QRIS goes abroad
Bank Indonesia launched QRIS, its national QR standard, on 17 August 2019. In the third quarter of 2026 it had 70.6 million users and 49.4 million merchants, and transactions were up 75.8% year on year.
QRIS is linked with Singapore (since November 2023), works at JPQR merchants in Japan (since 17 August 2025), and connects with South Korea (1 April 2026) and China (30 April 2026).
Elsewhere, Singapore’s PayNow links with Thailand’s PromptPay, India’s UPI and QR payments in Malaysia, and Vietnam’s NAPAS runs QR links with Thailand, Laos, Cambodia and China.
What it changes, and what it doesn’t
These links are mainly for paying in person: a visitor scans a local merchant’s code with the app from home. They don’t remove the tax, delivery and regulatory work of selling online across borders.
Sources
- e-Conomy SEA 2025: From digital decade to AI reality(opens in a new tab)
- Central banks of Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Singapore and Thailand seal cooperation in regional payment connectivity(opens in a new tab)
- QRIS (Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard)(opens in a new tab)
- Laporan Kebijakan Moneter Triwulan III 2026(opens in a new tab)
- Cross-border payment linkages(opens in a new tab)
- QRIS can now be used in Japan (press release)(opens in a new tab)
- Indonesia–South Korea cross-border QR connectivity launched (press release No. 28/68/DKom)(opens in a new tab)
- Indonesia–China cross-border QRIS launched (press release)(opens in a new tab)
- NAPAS expands cross-border QR payment between Vietnam and China(opens in a new tab)
Researched and written by Peacroft from public sources. Curated by hand, not updated in real time.
