Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and the Bank of Thailand (BOT) has launched the linkage of Singapore’s PayNow and Thailand’s PromptPay real-time payment systems, enabling customers from both countries to perform cross-border fund transfers using only their mobile numbers. Customers of participating banks in the two countries will be able to transfer funds of up to S$1,000 or THB25,000 daily across the two countries, using only their phone or mobile. There is no need to fill-up forms or information fields at all. Transfers will be completed in a matter of minutes, an improvement from the average of 1-2 working days for most cross-border remittances.
PayNow-PromptPay linkage shows that existing payments infrastructure and the banking system have the potential to provide seamless cross-border payment options to retail customers. This is the first of its kind globally, the two regulators said in the press release, adding that the linkage is a culmination of several years of collaborations between the two countries’ payment system operators, bankers, partner associations and participating banks.