UOB speeds ahead on cross-border payment

Singapore

THE race to send payments across borders in Asia is coming down to a blink of an eye and UOB has quietly worked behind the scenes to soup up regional fund transfers at a lower cost, a top executive at the bank said.

At the end of last year, UOB made public Asean's first completed test in making multiple funds transfers between a UOB Singapore account and a UOB Thailand account in real time.

This experiment, or proof-of-concept, was done by using the account-holders' mobile phone numbers that are tied to a bank account.

UOB's test in such peer-to-peer fund transfer comes as regula…