Banks get better terms when they negotiate together.
AsiaPay DLC Limited is the regional program manager for Asia within the Digital Local Currency group. We govern the Digital Local Currency Programme across the region, which lets a syndicate of banks pool their collective demand for a currency, contract directly with a single sponsor bank in the destination market, and reach that market’s retail payment infrastructure, for the visitors, students, workers and small businesses who cross Asian borders every day.
Three things change
Many to one, not one to one. Banks in a market assess their collective demand for a currency and approach the destination as a syndicate. Volume that would be marginal for any single bank becomes worth negotiating over, and the terms are set once for the group.
Direct, not intermediated. The syndicate contracts with the sponsor bank itself. No correspondent chain, and none of the compliance cost each additional hop carries.
Retail, not wholesale. Correspondent relationships move institutional flows. A sponsor bank shares its retail payment infrastructure, so member banks reach domestic instant payment, mobile wallet and QR rails on the same terms as a resident.
AsiaPay DLC does not contract with banks. The Programme is delivered in each country by a local program provider, established with a qualified local partner. Membership agreements are signed there. Regulated activity, custody of funds and settlement sit with the licensed banks that participate.
What local program providers deliver
Member banks expect more than access. Five capabilities sit inside every market programme, each a condition of the network working rather than an addition to it.
Cross border regulatory and compliance advisory
Establishing the shared framework that lets two banks in two jurisdictions contract with each other directly.
Read moreLocal currency treasury matching
Identifying and arranging the counterparty positions that let member banks hold and settle in each other’s currencies.
Read moreInstitutional training and certification
University accredited programmes for member bank staff, delivered with an education partner.
Read moreNetwork technology assurance
Auditing core banking, switching, card and merchant systems against the throughput standards the network requires.
Read moreProgramme communications
Multilingual publication and localisation, so material developed anywhere in the network reaches each market in its own language.
Read moreWho the Programme serves
Four populations cross Asian borders in volume, within the region and to and from Africa and Europe. Each is served today by cash, informal channels or costly intermediaries.
Tourism
Visitors pay in the destination’s local currency from their home banking app, and merchants are settled in their own currency.
Read moreStudents
Families fund tuition and living costs in the currency of the study destination, through their own bank, with a clear record.
Read moreForeign workers
Wages reach families and savings accounts as local currency in the home market, through the regulated banking system.
Read moreSmall and medium business
Traders and exporters pay suppliers and receive customers in local currency, without routing through a third currency.
Read moreWhy Asia
Asia is where some of the largest flows of travellers, students and workers begin or end, and where national instant payment schemes now carry everyday retail value.
331M
International arrivals in 2025
Asia and the Pacific received 331 million international tourist arrivals in 2025, up 6% on the year, and the recovery to earlier levels is still under way.
7.3M
Internationally mobile students
Nearly 7.3 million students studied abroad in 2023, and nearly half of all outbound students came from Asia.
$41.6B
Pakistan worker remittances
Pakistan received a record 41.6 billion dollars from overseas workers in fiscal year 2026. The Philippines recorded 35.6 billion dollars in cash remittances in 2025.
24.5B
UPI transactions in a month
India’s Unified Payments Interface processed a record 24.5 billion transactions in August 2026 and is now accepted in 11 countries.
Sources: UN Tourism World Tourism Barometer, January 2026; UNESCO higher education reporting for 2023; State Bank of Pakistan; Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas; National Payments Corporation of India.
The network in Asia
Country programmes are established market by market, each with a qualified local partner.
AfghanistanPay
Country program manager for Afghanistan, working with its local program provider on formal, recorded, two way banking for the afghani.
PakistanPay
Country program manager for Pakistan, one of the world’s largest worker remittance markets and home to the Raast instant payment system.
PhilippinesPay
Country program manager for the Philippines, with InstaPay, PESONet and a national QR standard in everyday use.
Cyprus
A programme being established with a qualified local partner, as a link between Asia, Europe and the eastern Mediterranean.
Kurdistan
The KurdPay business unit is developing a programme for the Kurdish markets with a qualified local partner.
Kazakhstan
A programme being established for Central Asia, connecting Kazakhstan with the wider network.
Where AsiaPay DLC sits
A governance company, not an operator
AsiaPay DLC holds regional governance and licenses expertise downward to country program managers. It has no external clients and does not enter the funds flow.
Anchored in sovereign currency
The Programme settles in local currency. It introduces no parallel instrument and no claim outside the domestic monetary system of any member state.
Built on existing licences
Every leg of every transaction is performed by a licensed bank under its own permissions and its own supervisor.