The deployment extends domestic mobile-banking infrastructure across borders, using interoperable QR routing to simplify payments for Malaysian consumers abroad
For many travelers, the hardest part of using digital payments overseas is not the transaction itself, but the need to download another app, register an account, or work out which payment method a merchant accepts. Malayasia’s latest cross-border Quick Response code (QR) arrangement seeks to remove that friction for users of participating local banking apps.
Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) operates Malaysia’s national retail payment infrastructure, including the DuitNow QR standard used by banks and e-wallets across the country.
On 28 October 2026, the platform extended that infrastructure overseas, enabling customers of participating Malaysian banks to make QR payments abroad through their existing mobile banking apps.
This is a good example of the continual deployment of digitalisation to bridge a cross-border payment gap.
Bridging outbound use
Since November 2023, eligible foreign travelers have already been able to pay Malaysian merchants using DuitNow QR: PayNet had already connected Malaysia’s domestic QR network to inbound international wallets: The remaining gap was outbound use — Malaysians travelling overseas still faced the hassles of carrying cash, using foreign cards, or downloading and registering for separate payment applications.
The organisation needed a way to let domestic banking-app users initiate and approve foreign QR transactions without changing their usual payment workflow. It also needed a model that could scale to additional banks, e-wallets, and destinations while preserving interoperability with Malaysia’s national QR standard. These issues were addressed through cross-border payment connectivity with a unified wallet gateway:
- Interoperable QR payment routing between Malaysia’s national QR standard and participating overseas merchant networks
- In-app transaction initiation, review, and confirmation within the customer’s existing Malaysian mobile banking application
- A single integration pathway intended to reduce the need for separate overseas payment apps or new consumer accounts
- Support for participating banks and e-wallets to adopt the outbound capability through PayNet’s network
- A phased market-expansion model, beginning with China, Hong Kong SAR, South Korea, the Philippines, and Laos
The initial participating banks are Maybank, CIMB, and Hong Leong Bank, with Bank Islam expected to join subsequently. At participating merchants, a customer opens the DuitNow QR function in their banking app, scans the merchant’s QR code, and confirms the payment in the same application.
Said the platform’s CEO, Praveen Rajan: “Cross-border payments should feel as familiar as paying at home … This connectivity gives Malaysians an easier way to pay abroad.”
The cross-border payment technology firm Alipay+ Global Growth Center, Ant International, was chosen to facilitate the digitalisation program’s unified wallet gateway.
