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Indonesia's top Muslim clerical body has issued an edict deeming virtual money acceptable, as long it met specific conditions. To showcase the compliance of their services with Islam, fintech firms are organising forums with Islamic scholars and sponsoring religious festivals. Newer startups are tailoring services for Indonesia's growing body of "born-again" Muslims, known as the "hijrah" movement at home."

The share of digital payment transactions to total monthly retail payments in the Philippines grew from 42.1% in 2022 to 52.8% in 2023, according to the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP). This indicates that the central bank has surpassed its target of digitalizing 50% of digital payments volume in the country under its Digital Payments Transformation Roadmap 2018-2023. In terms of value, the latest e-payments measurement also showed that the share of monthly digital payments to total transactions increased to 55.3% in 2023 from 40.1% in 2022. The main contributors to the rise in e-payments were merchant payments which accounted for 64.9% of monthly digital payments volume, person-to-person transfers at 19.3%, and business-to-business supplier payments at 6.1%.

The Central Bank of the States of West Africa (BCEAO) has launched the pilot phase of the interoperable instant payment system (IPS) of the West African Economic and Monetary Union (UEMOA). 25 financial institutions across four countries met the criteria required to participate. A second group will join the pilot on August 12, 2024.The new interoperable 24/7 IPS infrastructure is capable of processing transactions of any kind, regardless of the account type.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) published a paper that examines the relationship between digital payment innovation, economic growth and informal activities in 101 economies over 2014-19. It finds that a one-percentage point increase in digital payments use is associated with increases in the growth of GDP per capita of 0.10 percentage points and a decline in the share of informal sector employment of 0.06 percentage points, both over a two-year period. Digital payments do not appear to be significantly associated with rises in total factor productivity once controlling for general measures of digitalization and government effectiveness, but they are linked to greater financial inclusion and credit access. The results reinforce the case for government policies to encourage digital payments and, as complementary factors, access to the financial sector and information technology.