Yasuto Watanabe highlighted ASEAN+3’s progress in faster, cheaper, and inclusive cross-border payments via QR codes and Project Nexus, while noting challenges in wholesale settlement, foreign exchange, and regulatory coordination.
Key Points
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Yasuto Watanabe highlighted ASEAN+3’s efforts to enhance cross-border payments by making them faster, cheaper, more transparent, and supportive of financial inclusion and local-currency use, though global progress lags behind G20 targets, especially in wholesale transactions.
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Retail payment connectivity advances include QR code payments and linked instant systems like Thailand-Singapore PromptPay-PayNow, with Project Nexus offering a multilateral integration model; however, wholesale settlement and foreign exchange coordination remain challenging.
- Different economies require tailored solutions such as tokenization and stablecoins, but regulatory differences and the complexity of wholesale payment systems mean ongoing efforts are needed for effective cross-border financial integration.
Yasuto Watanabe, Chief Executive of the ASEAN+3 Macroeconomic Research Office (AMRO), delivered a comprehensive keynote at the 2026 Bangkok Digital Finance Conference, focusing on the evolving landscape of cross-border payments within the ASEAN+3 region. His address underscored the critical imperative of making international payments faster, cheaper, more transparent, and conducive to greater financial inclusion, particularly by encouraging the use of local currencies. Despite concerted global efforts aligned with the G20’s payment roadmap—which sets ambitious targets for transaction speed, cost, and transparency—progress remains insufficient, especially in wholesale cross-border transactions. Notably, as of 2025, only 55% of wholesale payments were settled within an hour, falling short of the 75% target, a clear indicator of ongoing systemic challenges.
Within this context, ASEAN+3 has emerged as a regional frontrunner in enhancing cross-border payment connectivity, particularly through innovative retail payment initiatives. Integration of QR code-based payments and the linking of instant payment systems exemplify these advancements, with landmark projects such as the Thailand-Singapore PromptPay-PayNow linkage showcasing substantial gains in transactional speed, cost reduction, and user convenience. However, these retail-focused improvements bring heightened operational complexity and increased infrastructure costs, underscoring the need for sophisticated, multilateral solutions. Project Nexus, a multilateral framework designed to unify disparate payment systems across economies, embodies such an approach by streamlining access to regional markets, facilitating interoperability, and reducing friction in retail payments.
Nevertheless, wholesale cross-border payments continue to present multifaceted obstacles. Efficient settlement at scale requires robust coordination of foreign exchange mechanisms alongside harmonized regulatory frameworks, areas characterized by significant heterogeneity among ASEAN+3 economies. Watanabe highlighted that diverse economic structures and priorities necessitate a pluralistic approach to payment system design rather than a one-size-fits-all model. For instance, some economies might benefit from integrating emerging technologies such as tokenization and stablecoins to enhance liquidity and settlement efficiency, while others may prioritize regulatory alignment or foreign exchange cooperation to mitigate transactional risks.
In sum, while ASEAN+3 demonstrates notable progress in retail cross-border payment integration, especially through innovative digital solutions and multilateral cooperation models like Project Nexus, substantial challenges remain—particularly regarding wholesale settlement efficiency, foreign exchange coordination, and regulatory convergence. Addressing these challenges is essential for realizing the broader goals of cost-effective, transparent, and inclusive regional payment systems that support local currency usage and economic integration across diverse ASEAN+3 markets.
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