KUALA LUMPUR, Nov. 17 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia's central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) have jointly launched the real-time payment systems linkage between Malaysia's DuitNow and Singapore's PayNow.

The initiative follows the QR payment linkage announced on March 31, which enabled cross-border QR payments to merchants, the duo said in a joint statement on Friday.

According to the statement, the DuitNow-PayNow linkage enables instant, secure and cost-effective peer-to-peer (P2P) fund transfers and remittances between the two countries.

This real-time payment systems linkage is also the first to include the participation of non-bank financial institutions from both countries, providing access to a broader group of users.

Consumers of participating financial institutions are now able to send and receive funds of up to 3,000 ringgit or 1,000 Singapore dollars (641 U.S. dollars) daily by using the recipient's mobile phone number or virtual payment address.

According to the statement, the DuitNow-PayNow linkage is an important milestone in improving the cost, speed, access and transparency of cross-border payments.

It is noted that P2P and remittance transactions between the two countries stood at 7.8 billion ringgit or 2.3 billion Singapore dollars in 2022. (1 ringgit equals 0.21 U.S. dollar) 

Web editor: Wang Xiaoxuan

Reviewer1: Zhang Yanlan

Reviewer 2: Pang Bo

Reviewer3:Tang Caihong

English Reviewer: Shen Fei