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ASEAN Plus Group has released a comprehensive guide to Asia-Pacific payment services regulations. For each country, it gives an overview of the current state of the domestic payment industry, the regulators in charge of overseeing the sector, the different types of licenses available, the licensing requirements, the state of cryptoassets regulations, intellectual property laws in place, as well as anti-money laundering and counter-terrorism financing (AML/CTF), tech risk, and data privacy requirements, among other key topics.

The IMF published an overview of the development of digital money and payment systems in twelve Pacific island countries (PICs), assessing potential benefits and risks, with a focus on how they can harness digital technology to enhance financial inclusion and payment efficiency while minimizing risks. The paper also examines the prerequisites for successfully adopting various forms of digital money and proposes a strategic framework for policy decisions (see Figure 10). It advocates a gradual, well-informed approach, tailored to PICs' unique monetary and financial circumstances, including the presence of national currencies and the maturity of payment systems. Moreover, the paper suggests that a regional approach could help address capacity and scalability challenges in introducing new digital money forms and payment methods in PICs.

According to the World Bank, download speeds in high-income countries increased significantly between 2019 and 2023, while speeds in lower-income countries stagnated. As of 2022, North America and East Asia have the speediest internet. This difference in broadband speeds can mainly be attributed to investment. In 2020, nearly 90% of global telecommunication investment came from East Asia and the Pacific, Europe and Central Asia, and North America. Meanwhile, low- and middle-income regions such as Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia, and Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for less than 10% of total investment.

"Drawing on survey responses from 34 Asian economies and country case studies, this note takes stock of recent developments related to central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and crypto assets in Asia. The survey finds that there is significant heterogeneity in terms of stage of development, but the emergence of private crypto assets has created an impetus to consider CBDCs. While most countries are engaged in research and development, with some at advanced stages of testing and pilots, very few countries are likely to issue CBDCs in the near-to-medium term, reflecting the still considerable uncertainties. Still, country experiences so far provide some key insights for others in their journey in this area."

WorldPay data from FIS has found that the Asia-Pacific region reached a much higher market share of mobile payments than other parts of the world. 44% of the transactions made at point of sale (POS) were carried out with a mobile phone instead of a debit/credit card or cash and 69% of online shop payments were completed on a mobile device. According to Global management consulting firm McKinsey, Southeast Asia has become a "wallet-first region." Africa had the second highest share of POS mobile payments, at 12%, while Europe only saw 8% of POS transactions carried out on mobile.

Mastercard launched Fintech Express. Rapyd, a B2B Fintech-as-a-Service provider, is the first partner in the program. The Fintech Express program can quickly onboard partners and provides immediate access to a cross-functional team of experts to support multiple work streams.

Though the growth of finance apps has become a global phenomenon, it is Asia-Pacific that's leading the trend, according to a new report by mobile measurement company Adjust and mobile data and analytics platform App Annie.

The Bank of Mongolia (BOM) has reportedly included central bank digital currency (CBDC) experiments in its 2023 monetary policy agenda. It has already  established a working group and preliminary research has begun, with priority CBDC design questions including the degree of anonymity, whether to impose caps on holdings, whether it should bear interest, and can it be used to mitigate money laundering and terrorist financing? The story is plausible because back in September, 2022, the IMF reported that the BOM was one of the Asia-Pacific central banks that were exploring CBDC issuance.

On January 10, 2022 Soramitsu was selected by the NTT Data Institute of Management Consulting to evaluate the potential risks and benefits of introducing CBDC in Fiji, Solomon Islands, Tonga, and Vanuatu. Confirmed by the IMF in September 2022: https://www.imf.org/en/Publications/fintech-notes/Issues/2022/09/27/Towards-Central-Bank-Digital-Currencies-in-Asia-and-the-Pacific-Results-of-a-Regional-Survey-523914

"The viability of CBDC initiatives depends on adoption. CBDCs must meet users' preferences - eg, the need for privacy and usability - and address commercial banks' concerns around disintermediation. At the same time, new functionalities - eg, offline access - could enhance CBDCs' appeal, while interoperability could broaden payment channels, both of which help boost user adoption."

Despite phenomenal growth, current buy now, pay later (BNPL) models are showing to be rather unprofitable. Quinlan and Associates estimates that in Asia-Pacific (APAC), the largest BNPL firms, including Australia's Afterpay and Japan's Paidy, are currently running average profit margins of -15% per annum (p.a.), while the more nascent players operating in emerging markets like the Philippines' Cashalo and Indonesia's Akulaku are suffering from profit margins of -100% p.a. According to the analysis, APAC BNPL providers are struggling to reach profitability as costs relating to sales, marketing, funding, staff, technology, and credit losses eat into all their profits. Losses are even more pronounced for emerging market BNPL providers because of their stronger focus on long tail, unbanked/underbanked consumers, leading to much larger credit losses and funding costs. Quinlan and Associates identified three key pathways for them to become commercially viable: optimization, vertical integration and expansion.

Out of the 50 digital challenger banks operating in Asia Pacific (APAC), just ten operators are profitable. These providers are primarily located in China and Japan, indicating that the two nations offer the most mature and developed digital banking landscapes in the region, according to a new analysis by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG).

"What people in London, New York and Silicon Valley don't understand is that Asia is now setting the pace in financial services innovation," says James Lloyd, a partner at EY Asia-Pacific focusing on fintech and payments.

The Global System for Mobile Communications (GSMA) released a COVID-19 response tracker that monitors mobile money-specific regulatory policy, government and provider interventions globally, collated using both primary and secondary sources and updated weekly. The tracker is intended to support mobile money providers and regulators with a mobile money-specific policy response database and learnings from other markets, in order to effectively tailor policy responses for their market. The tracker collates data from 32 countries, spread across Sub-Saharan Africa (17), East Asia & Pacific (7), South Asia (4), Middle East & North Africa (3), and Latin America & Caribbean (1). An interim analysis of the data collated in the tracker showed preferred policy response instrument, regional variations, and the validity period of these instruments.

Binance experienced issues with APIs and withdrawal processing due to network issues with Amazon Web Services on August 23. Amazon has confirmed to The Block that AWS has experienced a temporary outage in the Asia Pacific (Tokyo) region.

Some markets including Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Taiwan and Japan already have sufficiently high limits. Australia and New Zealand have raised their limits, effective April 9, and the Philippines will increase its limit on July 17. Still other markets are at a more exploratory stage in their deliberations and Mastercard stands ready to support them as initial discussions build momentum for action.

Global payment provider, Mastercard is calling for an increased contactless limit, particularly in the Asia Pacific region, in line with other parts of the world, like the UK, that have already done so. Mastercard has also increased the limit in New Zealand and Australia to $200.

Before the pandemic started, payment volumes reached new heights, which are predicted to continue but at a pace reflecting both the increased reliance on non-cash transactions and the effect of a dampened global economy. Global non-cash transactions surged nearly 14% from 2018-2019 to reach 708.5 billion transactions, the highest growth rate recorded in the past decade. Asia-Pacific surpassed Europe and North America to become the 2019 non-cash transactions volume leader at 243.6 billion. The increase was driven by increasing smartphone usage, booming e-commerce, digital wallet adoption and mobile/QR-code payments innovations, led by China, India and other SE Asian markets (31.1% growth).

"While T+1 settlement will come into force in the U.S. on May 28, 2024, its effects are being felt around the world. Recent research conducted by ValueExchange at the start of 2023 , showed that many challenges remain with regards to implementation, regardless of location. The survey showed that T+1's strongest impact is not in North America, but instead, with global custodians in Europe and the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. These regions have been facing the steepest challenges, and in APAC, specifically, funds and derivatives are encountering the greatest obstacle."

The Capgemini Research Institute published its 2023 World Payments Report. reveals non-cash transaction volumes will reach 1.3 trillion by 2023 globally. As consumers and businesses adopt new digital payment schemes, the report suggests this growth will accelerate to 2.3 trillion by 2027 growing at a rate of 15% annually. At a regional level, digital payments will grow by 19.8% across the Asia Pacific, 10.7% in Europe, and 6.5% in North America by 2027. According to the report, by 2027, new payment methods (instant payments, e-money, digital wallets, account-to-account, and QR code payments) will make up approximately 30% of total volume, with traditional non-cash payments (checks, direct debits, cards, and credit transfers) dropping to around 70% of overall non-cash transaction volumes.