During the Singapore Fintech Festival 2020, Ravi Menon, Managing Director, Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced that the regulator has made significant headway in the linkage between Singapore’s and Thailand’s national payment systems; PayNow and PromptPay respectively.
Monetary Authority of Singapore and Bank of Thailand embarked on this journey three years ago, and it is anticipated that by mid-2021 anyone registered with PayNow or PromptPay will be able to send money from Singapore to Thailand or vice versa, using just their mobile numbers. Ravi added that this will be secure, instant and at competitive rates at any time of the day.
The new initiative will be started off with a small number of banks on both sides and will be scaled up to other banks and even non-bank providers like e-wallets over time. With Singapore being home to many migrant workers who send money back to their home countries frequently Ravi said that making cross border remittance cheaper and faster can help migrant workers provide better and more timely support for their families.
MAS said that it is keen to partner other central banks in the region to expand the linkage, so that more people across Southeast Asia can benefit.
Featured image credit: Screengrab from Youtube
