Asia-Pacific · GDP rank #35
Malaysia
MY · MYR @ 0.2532/USD
Malaysia ran the highest-velocity DuitNow rollout in ASEAN. PayNet cleared 8.44bn digital transactions in 2025 (+34% YoY), DuitNow QR alone doubled to 3bn, and the country operates the densest ASEAN cross-border QR mesh (live with SG, TH, ID, CN, KH; IN expected 2026). Malaysia is one of the five founding-country IPSs inside the BIS Project Nexus Scheme Organisation. BNM's five licensed digital banks are now in operational years two and three; the Securities Commission frames stablecoin and tokenised-deposit policy.
Tab 03
Rails & infrastructure
The instant rail, the RTGS spine, the card switch, the direct-debit scheme, and the country's CBDC stance. Each rail is reported with operator, launch year, and 2024 flow so the relative scale across rails is readable at a glance.
CBDC status is deliberately granular: live, pilot, preparation, live stalled, and sceptical, no pilot are different things.
BNM has published research on a wholesale CBDC and participates in mBridge cross-border CBDC project. No retail pilot launched. Public posture states DuitNow's reach makes retail CBDC unnecessary in the near term. The 'research' designation follows the SCHEMA-v3 CBDC taxonomy strictly.
Instant payments
DuitNow (Transfer + QR + RPP)
The instant leg typically carries the vast majority of retail consumer flow in modern payment systems — and sits in direct tension with card networks and wallets for the same transactions.
- Operator
- Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet) under BNM oversight
- Live since
- 2018-12-08
Transactions · 2024
transactions/year · 2025
Includes DuitNow Transfer (alias-based interbank), DuitNow QR and the Real-time Retail Payments Platform (RPP).
Cleared value · 2024
MYR/year · 2025
Participating institutions
institutions · 2025
Alias registrations
aliases · 2025
Rail features
- ▌Real-time clearing 24/7
- ▌Per-transaction cap RM 50,000 for consumer flows
- ▌Typically zero fee for most consumer flows under RM 5,000
- ▌Bilateral QR corridors live with SG, TH, ID, CN, KH (IN expected 2026)
- ▌Project Nexus founding-country IPS — multilateral H2 2026
RTGS
Real-time gross settlement
The RTGS spine clears high-value interbank flow — including the settlement of the instant-rail cycles and card-network net positions. Transaction count is modest; cleared value is enormous.
Transactions · 2024
transactions/year · 2024
Cleared value · 2024
MYR/year · 2024
Open banking
Regulatory and technical posture
- Regime
- BNM Open API Framework (industry-led; PSD2-influenced)
- Live Since
- 2019-01-01
Active Open API integrations
consents · Q4 2025
Full reference
Kpis
FPX online banking transactions
transactions/year · 2024— Account-to-account online payment rail; pre-DuitNow workhorse for e-commerce checkout.
Project Nexus founding-country IPS members
central banks / IPSs · Apr 2026— BNM/PayNet alongside MAS/PayNow, BOT/PromptPay, BSP/InstaPay (Philippines) and RBI/UPI.
Cross-border QR corridors live
bilateral corridors · May 2026— Live: SG, TH, ID, CN, KH. India UPI expected 2026.