This paper, a joint effort by the World Economic Forum’s Centre for Financial and Monetary Systems and the Bank of Thailand, examines the rise of fast payment systems in South-East Asia and the momentum towards expanded cross-border connectivity.

Using the landmark PromptPay–PayNow linkage between Thailand and Singapore as a case study, it highlights lessons learned to guide future cross-border payments linkages and make the vision of a unified seamless real-time payments infrastructure across South-East Asia a reality.