In about 4 yrs: Retail payments across Asean via mobile numbers

Singapore

OVER the next four years or so, Singapore will work with other Asean countries to link up their real-time payment systems to enable small retail payments using just mobile numbers, with the link-up between Singapore and Thailand expected to be completed by the middle of next year, said Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) chief Ravi Menon.

But with large cross-border business payments still cumbersome and costly, a new form of cryptocurrency known as stablecoins, as popularised by Facebook's Libra, is a "competing potential solution", said Mr Menon.