The region
Asian rails
National instant payment schemes, QR standards and central bank projects that make local currency settlement practical across Asia.
A corridor is designed against the rails that already exist in the destination market. Which scheme a sponsor bank settles in, which national QR standard its merchants accept, and which cross border link the corridor can use determine what is possible and what a central bank will accept.
Asia’s position is distinctive. Several central banks have built national instant payment schemes that carry everyday retail value, and they are now linking those schemes to each other. Others are developing digital forms of their own currency. The Programme settles in the existing local currency and is designed to sit alongside all of these.
National rails
India
UPI
Unified Payments Interface, operated by NPCI
UPI processed a record 24.5 billion transactions in August 2026. NPCI International Payments is extending it abroad, and it is now accepted in 11 countries.
Pakistan
Raast
Instant payment system owned by the State Bank of Pakistan
Raast processed 742 million transactions in the January to March 2026 quarter, most of them person to person, with person to merchant payments growing quickly.
Philippines
InstaPay · PESONet · QR Ph
Real time and batch interbank schemes and a national QR standard
InstaPay and PESONet carry real time and batch payments, and a large share of adults use electronic money accounts that connect to them.
Thailand, Singapore, Malaysia
PromptPay · PayNow · DuitNow
National schemes already linked by bilateral connections
PromptPay reported more than 81 million registered accounts in March 2025. Singapore and Thailand linked PayNow and PromptPay in 2021, and DuitNow QR is accepted across the three markets.
Indonesia
BI FAST · QRIS
Instant interbank transfers and a national QR standard
Indonesia is an observer in Project Nexus, and its national QR standard is already used for visitor payments between neighbouring markets.
Afghanistan
Licensed mobile money
Electronic money institutions under central bank supervision
Retail value in Afghanistan sits largely with licensed electronic money institutions. The Programme works with them and with licensed banks to move two way flows into formal channels.
Kazakhstan
National instant payments
Services under the National Bank of Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan combines national instant payment services with a digital tenge developed by its central bank, and sits at the junction of Central Asia, Russia and China.
Digital currencies
Central bank digital money
Digital forms of sovereign currency
China’s digital yuan and Kazakhstan’s digital tenge show central banks building digital forms of their own currency. The Programme works in the same sovereign currency and does not compete with them.
Regional and cross border links
BIS Innovation Hub
Project Nexus
Nexus connects domestic instant payment systems through a single standard. India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand are the founding members, with Indonesia as an observer, and the project could reach about 1.7 billion people.
India
UPI abroad
NPCI International Payments links UPI to partner systems for person to person and person to merchant payments, including recent links to Cambodia, Greece and the Maldives.
Europe
TARGET Instant Payment Settlement
In the Nexus prototype, the Eurosystem’s instant settlement service was connected to the Malaysian and Singaporean systems, a useful reference for Asia and Europe corridors.
Africa
PAPSS
The Pan African Payment and Settlement System settles in local African currencies. For Asia and Africa corridors it is the continental clearing layer to design against, together with the other regional programmes of the group.
How this informs advisory work
Advisory work translates a member bank’s intent into a specific corridor design: which scheme to settle in, which QR standard to connect to, which cross border link to use, and how the sanctions, anti money laundering and data localisation position is documented for both supervisors.
AsiaPay DLC does not operate any of these systems, hold membership in them, or settle across them. They are the environment a corridor is designed for.