DuitNow-QRIS

Overview

The DuitNow–QRIS linkage is a two-way cross-border interlink between Malaysia's national QR standard (DuitNow QR, operated by Payments Network Malaysia / PayNet) and Indonesia's national QR standard (QRIS, the Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard operated by Bank Indonesia and the Indonesian Payment System Association, ASPI). Under the linkage, consumers in either country use their existing domestic banking or e-wallet apps to scan the other country's merchant QR code, with the foreign-currency leg converted and settled bilaterally [1][2]. It is one of the flagship bilateral connections under the ASEAN Payment Connectivity initiative led by the region's central banks. See the broader patterns in qris-cross-border and asean-rpc, and the Malaysian/Indonesian national rails in ../countries/MY-malaysia.md and ../countries/ID-indonesia.md.

History

The linkage was developed under the joint stewardship of Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and Bank Indonesia (BI). A pilot phase began in early 2022 — Bank Indonesia dates the pilot to 27 January 2022 — to validate the interoperability of the two national QR schemes [2]. Following completion of the pilot, the two central banks announced the commercial launch on 8 May 2023, opening the service to retail users in both countries [1][2].

The linkage built directly on each country's pre-existing unified QR rails: DuitNow QR, governed by PayNet's Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework, and QRIS, launched by Bank Indonesia in 2019 ../countries/MY-malaysia.md, ../countries/ID-indonesia.md. Through 2024–2025 the broader DuitNow cross-border programme expanded its country coverage and recorded sharp volume growth (see Status), alongside Malaysia's other links to Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia and China ../countries/MY-malaysia.md.

Technical specification

• Acceptance model. The linkage couples two EMVCo-aligned merchant-presented QR schemes. A Malaysian payer's app reads an Indonesian QRIS code (and vice-versa) by recognising the cross-border payload, rather than requiring merchants to display a second code [1][2]. Both DuitNow QR and QRIS are built on the EMVCo QR Code Specification for merchant-presented payments ../countries/MY-malaysia.md, ../countries/ID-indonesia.md.
• Operators / switches. PayNet on the Malaysian side; on the Indonesian side the ASPI-coordinated domestic switches (Alto, Artajasa, Jalin, Rintis) [2].
• Settlement. Bilateral settlement runs through appointed settlement banks — including CIMB Bank Berhad on the Malaysian side and Bank Mandiri and Bank Negara Indonesia (BNI) on the Indonesian side — supporting local-currency settlement (LCS) between the ringgit and the rupiah [2]. The LCS framework lets the FX leg settle in MYR/IDR rather than routing through a third "vehicle" currency.
• Payment direction. Two-way: both inbound (foreign visitor scans local merchant) and outbound (local user scans foreign merchant) retail payments are supported [1][2].

Use cases

Primary use cases are tourist and traveller retail payments and small-merchant cross-border acceptance: an Indonesian visitor pays a Malaysian merchant by scanning DuitNow QR, and a Malaysian visitor pays an Indonesian (largely MSME) merchant by scanning QRIS, each within their home app and home currency experience [1][2]. Bank Indonesia frames the benefit as "faster, cheaper, more transparent and more inclusive cross-border payments," strengthening trade, tourism and local-currency use between the two economies [2].

Implementations

At commercial launch the linkage already had broad institutional participation [2]:

• Indonesia: ~10 issuers (including BCA, Bank CIMB Niaga, Bank Permata, Bank Sinarmas, Bank Syariah Indonesia, Bank Mega, BPD Bali, DANA, LinkAja, Ottocash) and 30+ acquirers (including Bank Mandiri, BRI, BNI, GoPay, OVO).
• Malaysia: 5 issuers (CIMB, Hong Leong Bank, Maybank, Public Bank, TNG Digital / Touch 'n Go) and 8 acquirers (including AmBank, Boost, UOB Malaysia, Razer).

Major Malaysian wallets and bank apps that carry cross-border DuitNow QR include Maybank MAE, Touch 'n Go, Boost and bank mobile apps ../countries/MY-malaysia.md; on the Indonesian side, GoPay, OVO, DANA and the major state and private bank apps ../countries/ID-indonesia.md.

Comparison

• vs generic qris-cross-border: DuitNow–QRIS is one specific bilateral instance of QRIS's broader cross-border programme. QRIS is the most internationally connected ASEAN QR standard, with live links to Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand and expansion to Japan (2025) ../countries/ID-indonesia.md; the Malaysia link is distinguished by full two-way acceptance and MYR/IDR local-currency settlement [2].
• vs asean-rpc: The linkage is a building block of ASEAN Regional Payment Connectivity, the multilateral framework of bilateral QR and fast-payment connections among ASEAN central banks. RPC is the umbrella; DuitNow–QRIS is one of its node-to-node edges ../countries/MY-malaysia.md.
• Unlike a settlement-only rail, this linkage operates at the retail point of sale via scannable QR, not just interbank transfers.

Status

Live and expanding. Aggregate DuitNow cross-border QR volumes have grown sharply: Malaysia recorded 11.8 million cross-border QR transactions worth RM967 million in the first half of 2025, already surpassing the full-year 2024 figure [3]. Indonesia reported roughly 225% growth in cross-border QRIS usage, with total 2024 QRIS transaction value of about Rp42 trillion (~US$2.57 billion) across all corridors [3]. As of 2 August 2024, users could transact with QRIS or participating apps across Thailand, Singapore and Malaysia, and the bilateral programme is slated to extend toward Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and the Philippines in 2025–26 [3].

Sources

1 Launch of the Cross-Border QR Payment Linkage between Malaysia and Indonesia — Bank Negara Malaysia, 2023 2 Indonesia and Malaysia Announce the Commercial Launch of the Cross-Border QR Payment Linkage — Bank Indonesia, 2023 3 Cross-border QR Payments driving Asia's digital integration — PS Engage, 2025

Deployments

Found in the following country reports (grep across reports/countries/):

• MY — MY-malaysia.md

Regions / aggregations not mapped to a single country

• Malaysia–Indonesia