Malaysians travelling abroad and foreign visitors in Malaysia during the first half of 2025 made 11.8 million cross-border QR payment transactions worth RM967 million, says federal territories minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa.
In a written reply to the Dewan Negara today, she said the number of transactions represented a significant increase from the 11.7 million transactions valued at RM860 million throughout 2024.
“These transactions include those between Malaysia and Asean member countries Cambodia, Indonesia, Singapore and Thailand, and also encompass links with China and Korea, established through commercial arrangements between payment service providers,” she said.
Zaliha was responding to Senator Hatta Ramli regarding Malaysia’s efforts to harmonise differences among Asean countries, particularly in cross-border payments, given the varying levels of digital readiness regionally.
She said Bank Negara Malaysia is currently collaborating with central banks from three Asean countries and India under the Nexus Project to develop a multilateral cross-border payment network.
She said this next-generation initiative aims to connect domestic instant payment systems worldwide through a single connection to the Nexus payment scheme platform.
“The Nexus entity is expected to process its first live cross-border transactions in 2027,” she added.
