MAS, ASEAN central banks welcome Brunei and Laos to payment initiative

The initiative utilises QR payments, for faster cross-border transactions.

Brunei Darussalam Central Bank (BDCB) and Bank of the Lao PDR (BOL) have joined the Regional Payment Connectivity Initiative (RPC), which the Monetary Authority of Singapore is part of.

The addition of BDCB brings the RPC group to eight ASEAN central banks, including Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam.

The RPC initiative will promote faster, cheaper, more transparent, and exclusive cross-border payments. It will also provide SMEs access to the international market, easing trade, and facilitating worker remittance transactions through quick response (QR) code-based payment and other fast payment modalities.

“This will serve as a means to facilitate further trade, investments, and economic activities within the region and further foster close collaboration with fellow central banks,” read the joint press release.

Follow the link for more news on

Cross-border payments

The people you want to reach are already in this room.

Every quarter, SBR lands on the desks of the founders, CFOs, and directors running Asia's most consequential companies. Every day, they open our newsletter and read our website. It's a room that took twenty years to build — and it's the one most of our partners are trying to get into.

The good news is that the door is open. We work with companies on thought leadership articles, sponsored content, industry summits across Southeast Asia, regional awards programmes, podcasts, and media placements in print and digital. The shape of the right partnership depends on what you're trying to do, which is why we'd rather start with a conversation than send a rate card.

If you have something this room should know about, tell us. We'll tell you honestly whether we can help, and how.

No rate cards until we understand the brief. It's a better use of everyone's time.

Book a meeting

| Or download the media kit (PDF)

240,000 senior readers quarterly in print Top 1,700 Singapore companies reached

7 markets across Southeast Asia