Digital payment infrastructure expansion and e-commerce growth drive double-digit revenue growth in the region

Revenue Growth and Market Size

Southeast Asia cross-border payment revenue reached $12.7 billion in 2024, establishing the region as one of the fastest-growing markets for international payment flows. The figure reflects a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 9.8% from 2020 to 2024, with analysts projecting an acceleration to 10.5% CAGR through 2030, which would push regional revenue to $23.24 billion by the end of the decade.

Asia as a whole accounted for 32% of global cross-border payments in 2024, a share projected to rise to 37% by 2032, according to IMF Staff Country Reports. Total cross-border payment volume across Asia reached 12.8 billion transactions in 2024 and is forecast to nearly double to 23.8 billion transactions by 2032, underscoring the structural shift toward digital payment rails in the region.

The sustained revenue expansion positions Southeast Asia to capture an increasing portion of a global cross-border payments opportunity that is expected to exceed $23 billion in regional revenue alone by 2030. Revenue growth has been steady through the post-pandemic period, with each year from 2020 to 2024 showing sequential increases of roughly $0.9 to $1.1 billion annually.

Revenue ($B) ($B)Source: Orionmano Industries

Drivers: Digital Payment Infrastructure and E-Commerce

The growth trajectory rests on two reinforcing pillars: the rapid buildout of interoperable fast payment systems and the expansion of e-commerce across the Asia-Pacific region.

Linkages between national fast payment systems are enabling instant, low-cost cross-border transfers using only a recipient's mobile number. Thailand's PromptPay, Malaysia's DuitNow, and Singapore's PayNow have established bilateral connections that allow consumers and businesses to send funds across borders at near-instant settlement speeds and significantly lower costs than traditional wire transfers. These systems, operated by national payments networks and overseen by central banks—including Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore—represent a deliberate shift away from correspondent banking infrastructure toward domestic-rail interoperability.

The e-commerce expansion provides the transaction volume that makes these rails commercially viable. Asia-Pacific's e-commerce market is forecast to reach $4.2 trillion by 2026, driven by growth in the Philippines, Indonesia, India, Vietnam, and China. This deepening of account-to-account (A2A) transaction volume is creating natural use cases for cross-border payments as consumers purchase from merchants in neighboring countries and digital service providers serve regional customer bases. Industry projections indicate digital payments in the region will reach $1 trillion in transaction value by 2030.

SuperApps are acting as accelerants. Platforms like Grab, Shopee, and Gojek have integrated payment functionality within unified ecosystems that span transportation, food delivery, e-commerce, and financial services. These platforms process cross-border transactions as part of their core user experience—a tourist using Grab in Thailand, for example, may pay through a wallet linked to their home-country bank account via fast payment linkages. As these SuperApps expand across ASEAN markets, they create recurring cross-border payment flows that institutionalize the use of interoperable systems.

Regional QR Linkage Surge

QR cross-border payments, while still modest in absolute value and volume relative to total payment flows, are emerging as a leading indicator of adoption velocity. Data from IMF Staff Country Reports shows that QR cross-border payment volumes in Thailand increased by more than 300% in 2024 compared to 2023. Malaysia posted even steeper growth, with QR cross-border payments surging 550% year-over-year.

Aggregate data across all seven QR linkages operational within ASEAN shows that inbound payments in 2024 were approximately five times the volume recorded in 2023. The growth reflects the progressive expansion of bilateral QR interoperability agreements that allow consumers to scan merchant QR codes in participating countries using their domestic mobile payment apps. Unlike card-based or account-transfer methods, QR payments require no pre-registration or currency conversion friction at the point of sale—the exchange rate and settlement are handled in the background by the linked fast payment systems.

Tourism flows provide the transaction base for these QR linkages. Intra-ASEAN tourists accounted for 42% of total visitors to the region in 2023, up from 36% in 2019, according to IMF data. With tourism contributing 8% of ASEAN's GDP and supporting 12% of employment in 2023, the expanded use of QR cross-border payments has direct economic multiplier effects. Travelers from within the region are the primary users of QR interoperability, and the rebound in intra-ASEAN travel volumes—exceeding pre-pandemic proportions—is sustaining high growth rates for QR-based transactions.

The continued expansion of QR linkages will depend on additional bilateral agreements and the harmonization of technical standards across ASEAN's diverse payment schemes. The current seven linkages represent bilateral connections between a subset of member states, leaving significant room for network expansion as additional countries connect their domestic QR systems.

Growth (%) (%)Source: Orionmano Industries