In a significant move for India's financial technology landscape, global payments company Wise has received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as a cross-border payment aggregator. This development is a key indicator of India's broader strategy to modernize and internationalize its payment ecosystems, promising a more streamlined and cost-effective future for international transactions.
According to Worldpay’s Global Payments Report 2025, in eight out of the fourteen APAC markets covered, digital wallets have become the leading online payment method. This widespread adoption is driven by consumer preference for convenience and speed, as well as the integration of digital wallets with various payment platforms and services. The ubiquity of smartphones and the increasing penetration of internet access have further facilitated the growth of digital wallets, making them an essential tool for both consumers and merchants.
Cambodia's e-commerce market is experiencing a phenomenal surge, transforming the nation's economic landscape. This growth is not just a coincidence; it is the result of a powerful combination of factors, with the widespread adoption of QR codes and instant payment systems at its core.
In April 2024, PayU, a global fintech company backed by Prosus, received in-principle approval from the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) to operate as an online payment aggregator (PA). This milestone marked a significant step in PayU's journey to becoming a fully licensed payment service provider in India. The final approval, granted in May 2025, has profound implications for PayU, the digital payments ecosystem, and the broader Indian economy.
The Asia-Pacific (APAC) region has firmly established itself as a global hub for mobile payments, boasting a dynamic and well-established market with over 60 active mobile wallet brands and platforms, not including numerous bank-backed applications – as noted in a recent e-book published by Thunes, a cross-border payment infrastructure company based in Singapore. This burgeoning landscape is not a monolith; rather, it is a vibrant tapestry woven with distinct local preferences, powerful government initiatives, and the overarching influence of the all-encompassing super-app.
During the months of March and April 2025, India's Unified Payments Interface (UPI) experienced several outages, with the most notable disruption occurring on April 12, when the system was affected for nearly five hours. This marks the longest downtime in recent years. According to the NPCI (National Payments Corporation of India), the developer and operator of UPI, the system previously experienced partial and intermittent outages in March 2025 for 95 minutes and in January 2022 for 187 minutes. A few weeks after the incident, NPCI released a Root Cause Analysis (RCA) report which explained that the April 12 outage was caused by payment service provider (PSP) banks sending an excessive number of ‘Check Transaction Status’ API calls which overwhelmed the system’s capacity and led to instability. The situation worsened when a few PSP banks began sending multiple ‘Check Transaction’ API calls for even older transactions.
Mastercard’s latest announcement to expand stablecoin usability for everyday payments marks a pivotal moment in the ongoing convergence between traditional financial infrastructure and blockchain-based innovations. By enabling consumers to spend stablecoins through conventional card networks and offering merchants settlement options in stablecoins like USDC, Mastercard is laying down foundational rails for what may soon be a global shift in how value moves.
Despite the advancements in financial technology and digital payments, a large number of small businesses still face difficulties with transacting across borders. At the same time, industry reports, including Mastercard’s Borderless Payments Report, all highlight the growing demand from SMEs for secure, fast, and reliable cross-border payment solutions. According to the 2023 Mastercard report, more than half of SMEs surveyed said that they are doing more international business compared to 2021 and 75% are implementing strategies to expand internationally. The most common concerns and complaints of SMEs are related to the transparency of payments, fraud risk, and delays and fees.
Activity in Asia’s remittance market shows no signs of slowing down as a flurry of partnerships and new product launches signal growing interest in the sector. In China, Xoom, the digital remittance subsidiary of PayPal announced a partnership with Tencent to enable Weixin Pay users to receive funds in their Weixin Pay wallets or bank accounts. This collaboration is aimed at providing more options for customers to remit funds to China, in particular customers in the U.S., Canada and Europe which are markets that have high value and volume of remittance outflows to China. Xoom has previously collaborated with Alipay to enable cross-border payments to AliPay users in China, so this new tie up with Weixin Pay will help strengthen Xoom’s presence in China.
In a strategic leap that exemplifies the fusion of global fintech ambition and hyperlocal consumer behavior, Stripe has expanded its partnership with Tencent to enable in-person payments via Weixin Pay (also known as WeChat Pay) on Stripe Terminal across 20 countries. This move is more than a technical integration, it is a bold acknowledgment of how commerce is evolving to accommodate cultural and digital fluidity.
In a significant stride towards regional financial integration, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) has officially joined the Regional Payment Connectivity (RPC) initiative. This move not only marks Cambodia’s deepening engagement in ASEAN’s digital financial ecosystem but also underscores the broader ambitions of the bloc to streamline and modernize cross-border payments.
In a pivotal leap forward for global finance, Nexus Global Payments (NGP) has officially launched, ushering in a new chapter for cross-border transactions. Born from a bold vision seeded by the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) in 2021, what began as a proof-of-concept has now matured into an operational reality. The shift marks not only a technological milestone but a profound transformation in how countries could approach international payments going forward.
LankaPay, Sri Lanka’s National Payment Network, has partnered with Ant International to launch Alipay+ in the country. In the first phase of the launch, 14 international digital wallets, which are partnered with Alipay+, will be made available to over 400,000 LANKAQR merchants in Sri Lanka. LANKAQR is the country’s national QR code standard introduced by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka. This partnership comes at an opportune moment as travel to Asia has been gaining momentum and is expected to recover to pre-pandemic levels this year. Tourists and business travelers from China, Mongolia, the Philippines, Singapore, Malaysia, South Korea, Thailand, and Italy will now be able to scan the LANKAQR code and make payments using their preferred home payment app.
Sam Altman’s World Network is reportedly in discussions with Visa to integrate stablecoin payments into its self-custody crypto wallet, a move that could significantly impact the evolving intersection of traditional finance and digital assets. If successful, this initiative would allow users to spend stablecoins at any merchant that accepts Visa, effectively bridging the gap between the crypto economy and the mainstream financial system. With stablecoins emerging as a preferred digital asset for payments due to their price stability, this collaboration signals a broader shift toward the adoption of blockchain-based financial services.
In its recent annual report, the National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) presented data on the Bakong blockchain-based payment system which showed impressive growth. The volume of transactions in USD have increased by 133% and those in Cambodian Riel have grown 334%. Payment volumes on Bakong during 2024 amounted to US$105 billion which represents more than three times the country’s gross domestic product (GDP).
The Indian fintech landscape is set to witness a significant development with Pine Labs' initial public offering (IPO) in the second half of 2025. The payment solutions provider, backed by global investors such as Peak XV, PayPal, Mastercard, and Singapore’s Temasek, aims to raise approximately US$1 billion through its IPO. This move comes amidst challenging market conditions and will mark Pine Labs’ second attempt at going public after deferring a previous plan to list in the U.S.
India’s United Payments Interface (UPI) currently accounts for 80% of India’s digital payment transactions, with significant growth in the first six months of 2024. Indeed, a report by Worldline found that UPI transactions jumped to almost 79 billion from January to July, up from roughly 52 billion during the same period in 2023. The corresponding value of these transactions rose by 40%, rising from INR 83.16 trillion to INR 116.63 trillion.
Tencent-backed Airwallex appears to have had another banner year. In a Dec. 10 press release, the B2B payments firm said that its global revenue jumped 73% year-on-year while in the Asia-Pacific Region growth revenue growth was even brisker at 83%.
Singapore-based fintech startup YouTrip is increasingly confident about its business prospects and has even started talking about an IPO – though the company’s leadership will not commit to a date yet. YouTrip is an anomaly. In 2023, it managed to raise US$50 million in a tough period for fintech funding, which supported the expansion of its multicurrency wallet in Malyasia, Singapore and Thailand. It achieved profitability in 2022 and has stayed in the black. In November, YouTrip CEO Caecilia Chu told Nikkei Asia that the company processed US$10 billion in transactions last year and is projected to see a 70% annual revenue increase in 2024.
Walmart-backed PhonePe is one of India’s most prominent fintech startups, perhaps the best known after Paytm. With the backing of the retail chain juggernaut, which owns 85% of the company, PhonePe does not seem to face the same kind of pressure for an exit as startups dependent on venture capitalists. That means PhonePe can afford to wait until its financials are in good shape before going public. And in the 2024 fiscal year, PhonePe made important progress in that direction: Its losses were trimmed 28% to 20 billion rupees while revenue from operations surged 74% to 50.6 billion rupees.
Massive hype about central bank digital currencies – and in particular the retail segment – has not translated to widescale adoption in Asia. This is particularly notable in the region’s two largest economies and nations by population: China and India. Yet while retail users have limited interest in digital fiat currencies in China and India, they are flocking to Cambodia’s Project Bakong, which surpassed 10 million accounts (60% of Cambodia’s population) in December 2023. The National Bank of Cambodia (NBC) jointly developed Bakong with the Japanese blockchain technology startup Soramitsu, launching it in October 2020.
2024 may ultimately be remembered as the year when Paytm’s regulatory travails got real. Ever since the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) effectively forced the shutdown of the company’s payments bank earlier this year, Paytm has been endeavoring to convince investors it has a viable way forward. In some ways, the company is paying the price for an earlier stage of undisciplined growth that strayed from its core payments business and burned cash without delivering significant business breakthroughs.
Ant Group’s global expansion is continuing apace. According to data compiled by the Chinese payments giant, the number of travelers using their home payment apps via Ant’s Alipay+ app tripled from January to September, while spending at food and beverage outlets, attractions and ride sharing/taxis rose by 80%, 50% and 120% respectively.
The last few years have witnessed a rapidly evolving cross-border payment landscape in Asia Pacific. Across the region, financial institutions and FinTechs have made significant headway in areas like central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) and real-time payments.
However, several challenges remain that impede further progress. Potential CBDC fragmentation, legacy systems, and rising digital fraud pose difficulties. As 2025 approaches, regulators, financial institutions, and FinTechs must understand three key gaps and address them.
For many years, the China payments market was an oligopoly with state-owned UnionPay dominating the cards segment while Alipay and Tenpay together held about 90% of mobile payments. These three companies are still far bigger than any of their competitors, but Beijing has in recent years gradually begun improving market access for foreign firms amid a challenging economic environment. It is against this backdrop that PayPal has been steadily ratcheting up its presence in China, most recently with the launch of a service – PayPal Complete Payments – that allows Chinese merchants to accept foreign credit cards and mobile payments.
Nearly six months have passed since the publication of media reports speculating on a forthcoming IPO by Indian B2B payments fintech Pine Labs at a valuation of US$6 billion. One reason for what seems to be relatively slow progress on the company’s plans to go public is that it first needs to complete a change in its domicile from Singapore to India. Increasingly, Indian startups are shifting their domiciles from other nations to India because it is highly unlikely for companies with valuations below US$20 billion to get meaningful coverage from analysts in developed markets, which may dampen institutional investor demand. PhonePe and Groww have already shifted their domiciles to India, while Meesho, Razorpay, Zepto and Udaan have begun the process.
India’s United Payments Interface (UPI) has become the country’s premier digital payments rail and is continuing to build ever greater scale. According to PwC, total UPI transaction volume is expected to grow from 131 billion in the 2023-24 fiscal year to 439 billion by 2028–29. UPI now accounts for over 80% of India’s overall retail digital payments and is expected to surpass 90% by 2028-29. Given UPI's success, India has sought to expand its footprint internationally.
Walmart-backed PhonePe is one of India’s most successful fintech startups, yet nearly a decade on from its founding, the company still has no clear plans for an initial public offering (IPO). One reason for the delay may be that a giant multinational retail chain owns most of the company (85%), and is not as eager for an exit as the venture capitalists who typically back Indian startups. In June, Walmart’s executive vice president for corporate affairs, Dan Bartlett, said at the company’s annual shareholder meeting that a PhonePe IPO “is something we're looking at over the next couple of years."
India’s United Payments Interface (UPI) payments rail has achieved massive success in its domestic market that will be difficult for any future competitor to surpass. According to a new report by PwC, total UPI transaction volume is expected to grow form 131 billion in the 2023-24 fiscal year to 439 billion by 2028–29. UPI now accounts for over 80% of India’s overall retail digital payments in India and is expected to surpass 90% by 2028-29. Given UPI's success, India has sought to expand its footprint internationally and in the past few years it has become available in a number of countries from the United Arab Emirates and Bhutan to the UK and France. Yet questions remain about whether UPI can serve as a foundational platform for digital payments outside of India.
Airwallex, a plucky Tencent-backed B2B payments company founded in Australia, said on Aug. 15 that it has surpassed US$100 billion in annual processing volume, a 73% annual increase. The company, which has moved its corporate headquarters several times since its 2015 founding and is now based in Singapore, said it has seen growing volumes across all products and an annual run rate revenue of almost $500 million. While these numbers suggest that Airwallex continues to experience robust growth amid a broader fintech slowdown, it remains unprofitable.
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Ant Group and Globe-backed Mynt, which operates the e-wallet GCash, is on a roll. Long one of the most valuable startups in the Philippines, it this month saw its valuation increase to US$5 billion – more than doubling its previous valuation of US$2 billion that it reached in 2021 – following a combined US$800 million capital injection from Japan’s MUFG and the Philippine conglomerate Ayala. The new funding for Mynt comes at a time when large fintech investments are hard to come by given high interest rates and more-stringent investor expectations.
When it comes to cross-border payment linkages, Southeast Asia is leading the way. Several years ago, Singapore and Thailand established the first such linkage with their respective real-time retail payment networks, making it possible for users to pay each other with just a mobile number. Since then, Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines have all established their own real-time payment systems. Of course, a broader regional system has always been the goal of central bankers, given the speed, efficiency and transparency it promises. With the advent of Project Nexus led by the Bank of International Settlements (BIS), that possibility may have just increased significantly.
Revolut’s PR machine has long sought to depict the company as an ascendant player in the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region. These efforts go back almost six years. Revolut entered Singapore and Japan in late 2018 and Australia in early 2019. In recent years, it has invested big in India. The UK finech unicorn talked about entering China in 2021, but those efforts to do not seem to have come to fruition.
Given the ubiquity of the Line messaging app in Japan, we were initially surprised to learn that the Line Pay app will be shut down in its home market in the end of April 2025. New user registrations will only be possible until Nov. 2024. After that, users will be able to transfer their Line Pay balances to PayPay. In a statement, Line-Yahoo stated the move is part of its governance strategy to “reorganize its businesses and integrate overlapping business areas” to expand group synergy.