Non-bank institutions captured 19% of Singapore’s cross-border payment flows in 2024, up from 11% in 2020, driven by fintech innovation and regulatory tailwinds.

Non-bank payment institutions in Singapore held an estimated 19% of cross-border payment flows in 2024, up from 11% in 2020, according to industry data. This represents a near-doubling of non-bank market share in five years. To contextualise the figure: globally, banks handled 92% of B2B cross-border payments in 2023, with non-bank players accounting for just 6% of flows—split at roughly a 2:1 ratio between corporate and SME segments (FXC Intelligence). In consumer remittances, the dynamic is reversed: banks carried only about one-third of flows globally in 2023, implying a non-bank share of roughly 67%. Singapore’s combined share of 19% across total cross-border flows—including B2B, B2C, and consumer—thus sits well above the global B2B non-bank average of 6%, signalling a distinctive competitive environment in the city-state where non-bank players have gained meaningful traction even in traditionally bank-dominated segments.

Non-Bank Share Growth in Singapore Cross-Border Flows

The headline trend is unambiguous. Non-bank payment institutions in Singapore increased their share of cross-border payment flows from 11% in 2020 to an estimated 19% in 2024, a compound gain of roughly two percentage points per year. This growth has been sustained across a period of rapid expansion in the total cross-border payments market. The global cross-border payments market was valued at USD 212.55 billion in 2024 and is projected to reach USD 320.73 billion by 2030, growing at a compound annual rate of 7.1% (Grand View Research). Within this expanding pie, non-bank players in Singapore are capturing a disproportionately larger slice.

The contrast with global benchmarks is stark. While non-bank institutions have made inroads into consumer remittances worldwide—where they already command roughly two-thirds of flows—the B2B segment has remained heavily bank-dominated. Global banks accounted for 92% of B2B cross-border payment flows in 2023, handling USD 27.8 trillion in total value (FXC Intelligence). Singapore's 19% non-bank share, which spans B2B, B2C, and consumer flows, indicates that non-bank adoption in the city-state has extended well beyond the consumer remittance corridor, penetrating business payment segments where banks historically held near-total control.

Share (%) (%)Source: Orionmano Industries

Drivers of Non-Bank Adoption: ISO 20022 and Payment Scheme Interlinking

Two interconnected infrastructure developments have been central to enabling non-bank growth in Singapore: the migration to the ISO 20022 messaging standard and the interlinking of real-time payment systems.

Singapore's MEPS (MAS Electronic Payment System) has migrated to ISO 20022, the global messaging standard that supports richer, structured data and improved interoperability with non-bank payment systems. As of August 2024, 26% of payment instruction traffic globally had shifted to ISO 20022, and over 70 countries have adopted the standard (EY). By the end of 2025, 80% of high-value settlements are expected to operate on ISO 20022. Key infrastructures including the UK's CHAPS, the Eurosystem's TARGET, and Singapore's MEPS have already migrated and will begin mandating enhanced data fields in the future. For non-bank players, ISO 20022 reduces the technical friction of connecting to legacy bank-dominated messaging networks, lowering barriers to entry and enabling richer service offerings such as reconciliation and compliance data attached directly to payment messages.

Parallel to the messaging standard upgrade, the interlinking of national instant payment systems has created new channels accessible to non-bank participants. Singapore's PayNow and Thailand's PromptPay were linked in April 2021, marking the world's first real-time payment system interconnection. The linkage allows users of participating banks in both countries to send money using only a mobile phone number, with transfers completed within minutes—compared to one to two hours, or up to three business days, for alternative solutions on the same corridor (FSB). In 2024, just over 870,000 transfers were made on the PayNow-PromptPay linkage, a 16% increase year-on-year (FSB). For non-bank payment providers, such infrastructure linkages create a standardised, low-cost on-ramp for cross-border transactions without requiring proprietary bilateral agreements with banks in each corridor.

Regulatory and Competitive Landscape

Regulatory developments have reinforced the shift toward a more level playing field between banks and non-bank payment service providers (PSPs). In December 2024, the Financial Stability Board (FSB) finalised recommendations to enhance consistency in the regulation and supervision of bank and non-bank PSPs involved in cross-border payments, with the explicit aim of reducing the likelihood of regulatory arbitrage while acknowledging differences in business models and risk profiles (FSB). The FSB subsequently held a workshop with members of its taskforce and consultation respondents to explore implementation pathways across jurisdictions. Singapore, which already operates a licensing regime under the Payment Services Act that brings non-bank PSPs under central bank oversight, is well-positioned to implement such recommendations without disruptive regulatory overhaul.

Banks have not been passive observers. Major global banks are actively investing in cross-border payments fintechs, both to defend market share and to accelerate internal innovation. Over a five-year period analysed by FXC Intelligence, BNY Mellon made 17% of its fintech investments in cross-border payments companies, despite investing in only 35 companies total. Citi, a far more prolific investor with 409 total investments, allocated 11% of its investments to cross-border payments—the highest absolute number among the 19 banks studied. Standard Chartered, with deep Asia exposure, directed 10% of its 91 investments to the segment. These figures suggest that incumbents view cross-border payments as a strategic priority requiring external innovation partnerships, rather than solely in-house development.

The global cross-border payments market, projected to grow from USD 212.55 billion in 2024 to USD 320.73 billion by 2030, offers ample room for both bank and non-bank players to expand. Singapore's regulatory openness—characterised by MAS's early adoption of ISO 20022, its push for payment system interlinking, and its comprehensive licensing framework—positions non-bank players to capture further share, particularly in the high-growth B2B and e-commerce segments. While banks remain dominant in global B2B flows and continue to control the highest-value transactions, the trajectory in Singapore suggests that non-bank penetration will continue climbing as infrastructure matures, regulatory symmetry increases, and cross-border commerce grows.