Markets

Four groups of people cross Asian borders in large numbers, inside the region and to and from Africa and Europe. Each needs to move or spend value in another country’s currency. Each is served today by cash, informal channels, or a chain of intermediaries that adds cost and removes visibility. The Programme gives each of them a regulated route, and gives member banks the retail volume that goes with it.

Tourism

Asia and the Pacific received 331 million international tourist arrivals in 2025, up 6% on the year, according to UN Tourism. Visitors arrive from other Asian markets, from Africa and from Europe, and Asian travellers go the other way. Today most of that spending reaches local merchants through cards routed over international networks, or through cash exchanged at a margin.

Under the Programme a visitor buys the destination currency through their own bank, keeps it in a legitimate onshore wallet, and spends it through the national QR and instant payment schemes that residents use. The merchant receives local currency in a local bank account. The visitor’s bank gains a retail relationship that stays inside the regulated perimeter.

Students

UNESCO counted nearly 7.3 million internationally mobile students in 2023, and nearly half of all outbound students came from Asia. Study within the region is growing, and destinations across Asia, Europe and the Middle East are expanding their intake.

A family funds tuition and living costs in the currency of the study destination, through its own bank, and the student holds and spends that currency onshore. Universities receive payment in their own currency with a clear record of the source, and the student’s monthly spending sits inside the banking system rather than outside it.

Foreign workers

Pakistan received a record 41.6 billion dollars in worker remittances in fiscal year 2026, according to the State Bank of Pakistan. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported 35.6 billion dollars in cash remittances in 2025. Workers from across Asia are employed in other Asian economies, in Europe, and in the Arab region, and many send wages home every month.

The Programme lets a worker send local currency from a bank in the host country to a family account or wallet in the home country, settled between licensed banks at rates negotiated by the syndicate. The recipient can keep the value, spend it through domestic schemes, or withdraw it as cash. The flow is recorded from the first step, which is the main difference from informal channels.

Small and medium business

Small traders and exporters across Asia pay suppliers and receive customers in several currencies, and often route each payment through a third currency to do so. Trade between Asia and Africa, and between Asia and Europe, is growing along corridors that correspondent banking serves poorly at small ticket sizes.

Through the Programme a business can pay a supplier in the supplier’s currency and receive customer payments in its own, using the retail rails of each market. Banks in the syndicate gain commercial relationships with firms that sit below the threshold of the wholesale correspondent network.

What member banks gain, by segment

Figures from UN Tourism (2025), UNESCO (2023), the State Bank of Pakistan (fiscal year 2026) and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (2025).