From behavioural change to scalable inclusion: Cross-border payments in APAC

The goal is not just faster transfers, but a seamless, inclusive financial ecosystem. 

Six out of 10 of the world’s largest remittance payout markets are in the Asia-Pacific, flows that are largely driven by migration and labour mobility. But the way that money now moves across borders looks very different from even a decade ago. Digital wallets and local payment platforms have replaced slow, bank-centric transfers with systems that are faster, cheaper, and easier to use.

This has consequences that go well beyond transaction volume. When millions of people begin moving money through digital channels rather than bank branches, new demands are placed on the payments infrastructure. Systems must now support real-time use, low-value transactions, and people who may never interact with a traditional bank at all.

Consumer behaviour has also evolved in line with these changes. Migrant workers, households, and small businesses no longer think of remittances as specialist financial products. They expect them to work like the rest of their digital lives: immediate, mobile, and simple.

As wallets become the place where people receive income, pay bills, and make purchases, cross-border transfers are pulled into that same everyday financial experience.

Wallets as financial identities
Particularly in Southeast Asia, digital wallets have evolved from ancillary payment tools to central financial hubs. Examples like GCash in the Philippines and bKash in Bangladesh illustrate this. These platforms have developed partnerships and market penetration that blur the boundaries between mobile money and core financial infrastructure. Rather than being mere receivers of funds, wallets are now entry points into broader financial services, from bill payment to savings and merchant acceptance.

For many users, the concept of a bank as the primary channel for financial transactions is fading. The wallet is the financial identity.

These changes in usage patterns have ramifications for how cross-border transfers are executed. Historically, senders needed bank routing codes and detailed beneficiary information, a barrier in markets with low levels of traditional banking and financial inclusion.

Today, a wallet name and number are all a user needs, removing friction for low-value transactions and aligning the remittance experience with what users expect from digital payments. For recipients, this means money no longer arrives as cash to be collected at a branch or ATM, but as funds that can be spent or transferred directly from the wallet ecosystem.

In Bangladesh, the bKash service is used so ubiquitously that the name itself has entered everyday language as a verb, with merchants across the country accepting it as a primary means of payment. The wallet is part of the mainstream economy.

Policy and infrastructure catching up
These consumer-driven developments have increasingly aligned with institutional measures designed to formalise fast-growing payment activity. In Malaysia, cross-border remittances are regulated under Bank Negara Malaysia’s Money Services Business framework, which provides a defined licensing route for firms offering inbound and outbound remittance services. This framework is being used in practice, enabling regulated providers to operate cross-border services and work with local banks and licensed payment institutions within an established supervisory perimeter.

Whilst licensing alone does not create interoperability, it brings remittance activity into the formal financial system and establishes a clearer compliance baseline for collaboration across banks, payment providers, and digital wallets. In doing so, it helps lay the regulatory groundwork for a more structured and resilient cross-border payments environment.

Remittances as a gateway to financial inclusion
Digital payment solutions are also reshaping financial inclusion for migrant labourers. For many of these workers, the first step into formal financial systems is through a digital wallet that integrates remittance receipt with everyday financial activities. Through services like InstaPay, migrant workers can receive wages or transfer funds without being excluded by traditional banking requirements. This directly addresses longstanding barriers to financial inclusion and allows millions of people to participate more fully in the formal economy.

Three trends reshaping cross-border payments
Take a closer look at where the payments landscape is headed, and you'll notice three interconnected trends.

First, financial inclusion is rising rapidly, driven by both consumer demand and supportive regulation. Governments across APAC have made it a priority to enable digital payments and reduce reliance on cash policy, creating a favourable environment for wallets to become central financial identities.

Second, SMEs are increasingly international. Small and mid-sized enterprises that once focused almost exclusively on domestic markets now operate across borders through international supply chains and customer relationships. Their payment needs reflect this expansion: They require cost-effective, compliant, fast, and transparent cross-border solutions that operate at the scale of their business activities.

These developments matter even more as remittance corridors continue to diversify. The idea that remittances flow mainly between the Middle East and South Asia no longer holds. Communities in North America and East Asia now send money to recipients across Southeast and South Asia, creating a far more complex and distributed network of flows.

Third, corridor diversification itself has become a defining feature of the market. Flows from North America to South Asia, and intra-Asia movements such as from Japan to Southeast Asia, demand infrastructure that can flexibly and reliably support multiple jurisdictions and regulatory regimes.

Together, these trends point to a future in which scale and inclusion are inseparable. Wallets and banks will need to work together, combining the accessibility and user experience of digital wallets with the compliance and settlement capabilities of formal banking systems. The opportunity for growth in APAC is substantial: The population is young, urbanising rapidly, and increasingly comfortable with digital interaction. This environment supports experimentation and the rapid adoption of new payment experiences.

Yet realising this opportunity requires a clear understanding of the social and economic context in which cross-border payments operate. Supporting financial inclusion does not mean simply pushing transactions through digital channels. It means enabling individuals and businesses to integrate into the broader financial system in ways that are safe, compliant, and aligned with their real-world needs.

That requires aligning regulatory frameworks with customer behaviour, promoting interoperability across platforms and corridors, and building simple, user-friendly solutions without compromising security or compliance.

Cross-border payments now sit on the front line of digital transformation. As consumer behaviour continues to evolve and digital wallets mature into financial identities, the systems that enable these flows must evolve as well. The goal is not just faster transfers, but a seamless, inclusive financial ecosystem that serves individuals and commerce with equal reliability.

The path to that future runs through the wallets in people’s hands, the policies that support them, and the infrastructure that connects them across borders.