PromptPay-LaoQR

Overview

The PromptPay–LaoQR linkage is a two-way cross-border interlink between Thailand's national instant-payment QR (PromptPay / Thai QR, switched by National ITMX) and the Lao PDR's national QR standard (LAO QR / LaoQR, switched by the Lao National Payment Network, LAPNet). It lets users of participating banks in each country scan the other country's merchant QR code from their home mobile-banking app, with the FX leg handled bilaterally [1][2]. It is the sixth ASEAN cross-border linkage for the Bank of Thailand and is delivered under the ASEAN Payment Connectivity initiative [1]. See national context in ../countries/TH-thailand.md and ../countries/LA-laos.md, and the regional framework in asean-rpc.

History

The linkage was developed under the joint stewardship of the Bank of Thailand (BOT) and the Bank of the Lao PDR (BOL), and announced on 3 April 2024 at the 11th ASEAN Finance Ministers' and Central Bank Governors' Meeting in Luang Prabang [1]. It rolled out in two directional phases:

• Phase 1 (from 3 April 2024): Lao PDR users can scan Thai PromptPay QR codes displayed by merchants in Thailand, using participating Lao banks' mobile apps [1][2].
• Phase 2 (end of June 2024): Thai users can scan LAO QR codes displayed by merchants in the Lao PDR, using participating Thai banks' mobile apps [1][2].

The Lao PDR became the sixth country to which BOT linked its instant-retail-payment system, after Cambodia, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Vietnam [1]. The link sits within a wider LaoQR cross-border push that also connected Laos with Vietnam, Cambodia and China UnionPay ../countries/LA-laos.md.

Technical specification

• Acceptance model. Two EMVCo-aligned merchant-presented QR schemes are coupled: a payer's home app recognises the counterpart country's QR payload and processes it cross-border, rather than requiring a separate code at the merchant [1]. LaoQR is an EMVCo-aligned national specification interoperable across LAPNet members ../countries/LA-laos.md.
• Operators / switches. National ITMX (Thailand) and LAPNet (Lao PDR) operate the domestic rails being interlinked [1].
• Settlement banks. Kasikornbank (KBank) on the Thai side and Banque Pour Le Commerce Extérieur Lao (BCEL) on the Lao side act as settlement banks for the corridor [1]. BCEL is the designated settlement bank for the Thailand corridor on the Lao side ../countries/LA-laos.md.
• FX / local currency. The linkage promotes settlement in the participants' local currencies (THB / LAK) under the ASEAN Payment Connectivity local-currency-usage objective [1].

Use cases

The dominant use case is tourist and cross-border traveller retail payments between two economies with heavy mutual travel — roughly 2 million cross-border travellers between the two nations in 2023 — letting visitors pay merchants by QR from their home app instead of carrying cash or exchanging currency [1]. On the Lao side the cross-border QR programme is closely tied to tourism initiatives such as Visit Laos Year 2024 ../countries/LA-laos.md.

Implementations

At launch the linkage involved a small set of banks on each side, expected to grow [1]:

• Thailand (Phase 1 acquirers / Phase 2 issuers): Bangkok Bank and Bank of Ayudhya (Krungsri) among the initial participants [1]. Krungsri publicly launched QR payment services for Thai tourists travelling to Laos [3].
• Lao PDR: six commercial banks at launch, including ACLEDA Bank Lao, Agricultural Promotion Bank (APB), BCEL, Joint Development Bank (JDB), Lao-Viet Bank and ST Bank [1].

On the Lao consumer side, BCEL One and the EZyKip tourist app are the main LaoQR-capable apps ../countries/LA-laos.md.

Comparison

• vs asean-rpc: This is one bilateral edge within the multilateral ASEAN Regional Payment Connectivity framework; RPC is the umbrella of QR and fast-payment links among ASEAN central banks, and this corridor is BOT's sixth such link [1].
• vs duitnow-qris: Both are two-way EMVCo-QR linkages under ASEAN Payment Connectivity with named settlement banks and local-currency settlement; PromptPay–LaoQR is distinguished by an explicit phased directional rollout (Lao→Thai first, Thai→Lao second) versus the simultaneous two-way commercial launch of DuitNow–QRIS [1][2].
• PromptPay itself is one of Asia's largest instant-payment systems, with tens of millions of registrations and very high daily volumes domestically ../countries/TH-thailand.md, giving the Thai side a large acceptance base for the corridor.

Status

Live in both directions since mid-2024 (Phase 1 from April 2024; Phase 2 from end-June 2024) [1][2]. The corridor is part of Thailand's broader, fast-growing cross-border QR network and Laos's expanding set of QR links (Thailand, Vietnam, Cambodia, China) ../countries/TH-thailand.md, ../countries/LA-laos.md. Granular corridor-specific transaction figures were not published in the launch materials reviewed.

Sources

1 Joint Press Release: Launch of the Cross-border QR Payment Linkage between Thailand and the Lao PDR — Bank of Thailand, 2024 2 Thailand, Laos Launch Cross-border QR Payment Link — Regulation Asia, 2024 3 Krungsri's QR payment services for Thai tourists to Laos kicks off — The Nation Thailand, 2024

Deployments

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

• TH — TH-thailand.md

Regions / aggregations not mapped to a single country

• Thailand–Laos