Payments infrastructure – not apps – will define South-east Asia fintech’s next decade

SOUTH-EAST Asia’s payment story is often told as a leap from cash to digital, largely driven by the explosion of consumer-facing apps. But that chapter, focused on mere adoption, is effectively over.

In 2026, the more important shift isn’t about new app features; it is fundamentally about integration and the underlying payments infrastructure.

Digital payments are fast becoming the invisible, intelligent tracks underpinning commerce across South-east Asia. According to recent industry research, they are on track to account for a staggering 94 per cent of all e-commerce transactions in the region within the next few years.

What is changing now is how these foundational systems connect, scale, and make decisions – sometimes even without direct human interaction at the application layer.

Four critical developments point to where payments in South-east Asia are heading next, strongly demonstrating why payment infrastructure – not just the apps that sit on top of it – will truly define the region’s fintech in the coming decade.

1. Domestic payment rails are evolving into regional infrastructure

What began as country-specific real-time payment systems, often initiated through domestic payment apps, are now much more significant: they are increasingly linking up across borders, becoming a critical piece of regional infrastructure.

QR-based payment networks such as PayNow, PromptPay and DuitNow are no longer confined within national boundaries. Instead, these underlying payment rails are forming a robust regional mesh that allows consumers to pay abroad using familiar, locally regulated methods.

Indeed, Juniper Research (JR) projects that QR payment values across Asia-Pacific will surge to US$1.2 trillion by 2029, a trend powerfully evident in this cross-border infrastructural interconnectivity.

This matters because it quietly redefines cross-border payments. Rather than relying solely on global card schemes, South-east Asia is building its own interoperable payment highways – shaped by domestic regulation but designed for seamless regional use.

For merchants, the distinction between local and foreign customers is beginning to blur due to this integrated infrastructure opening vast new markets.

For regulators, the challenge is significant: aligning standards and harmonising regulations across these infrastructural layers without slowing momentum, which is critical for long-term interoperability and trust.

2. Checkout is becoming a protocol problem, not a design one

For years, improving checkout meant better UX design within an app or website. Increasingly, it is about fundamental protocols and technical standards that are invisible to the end-user but critical to the payment process.

Click to Pay, built on EMVCo network tokenisation, reflects a broader shift towards protocol-led checkout experiences. By replacing manual entry of sensitive card details with secure tokens that work across devices and merchants, these systems aim to reduce friction without weakening security.

Tokenisation renders intercepted data unusable, significantly lowering the risk of fraud. Research by Cybersource suggests that tokenisation could reduce fraud risk by up to 26 per cent, providing a rare win-win in payments.

This frictionless approach, embedded deep within the payment infrastructure, is also expected to significantly boost authorisation and checkout rates.

The implications are significant. As these infrastructure-level standards gain traction, merchants that fail to adopt them may find themselves competing at a structural disadvantage rather than a branding one.

With global network tokenisation revenue forecasted by JR to reach US$8.9 billion by 2029, the imperative for adopting this core payment infrastructure upgrade is clear.

3. Smartphones are offering an alternative to payment terminals

Software point-of-sale (Softpos), or tap-to-phone technology, is removing one of the last physical barriers to digital payments: dedicated hardware. This is a fundamental change to the payment acceptance infrastructure.

By allowing Near Field Communication-enabled devices to accept contactless payments, Softpos dramatically lowers the cost of entry for small or mobile-focused merchants. This is especially relevant in South-east Asia, where informal and micro-businesses play a major role in the economy.

The transaction value processed via Softpos could see a staggering 2,150 per cent increase to reach US$540 billion by 2030, according to JR projections.

The result is not just convenience, but inclusion. When every smartphone can become a terminal, digital commerce expands beyond malls and storefronts into street markets, pop-ups and last-mile delivery.

Universally accessible payment infrastructure fosters greater financial inclusion and operational efficiency.

4. AI is entering the payment flow as a participant within the infrastructure

Perhaps the most disruptive change on the horizon is the rise of agentic AI in commerce.

Unlike earlier forms of automation that merely assisted users through apps, agentic systems act on users’ behalf, with autonomous bots negotiating and transacting directly within the payment flow infrastructure.

Global payment networks and technology companies are already developing frameworks that allow AI agents to initiate, authenticate and complete transactions.

These “machine customers” introduce new efficiency, but also pose profound challenges to existing regulatory and security infrastructure. Existing regulatory and fraud models, designed for human behaviour, struggle with autonomous software capable of executing thousands of micro-transactions at speed.

This will force a rethink of accountability, authorisation and security at the systemic level. Operating without direct human oversight, these agents create a critical accountability gap in existing frameworks.

Static rules will not be enough; adaptive, behaviour-based systems, embedded within the payment infrastructure, will be essential alongside clear regulations to define liability and distinguish legitimate AI from malicious botnets.

The bigger picture: infrastructure as the defining force

Taken together, these shifts unequivocally demonstrate that South-east Asia is entering a profoundly mature phase of payment evolution.

The defining characteristic of the next decade won’t be the launch of more consumer apps, but rather the strategic development and deployment of resilient, interoperable and intelligent payment infrastructure.

It is this deeper, foundational layer of interconnected systems, robust standards and AI-driven processes that will truly underpin the region’s economic future and define its fintech trajectory.

For merchants, success will hinge on how adeptly they navigate this growing infrastructural complexity, embracing the vast opportunities while strategically addressing the security and regulatory hurdles that accompany such rapid innovation at the core.

For policymakers, the task is to encourage innovation within this evolving payment backbone while maintaining trust and establishing clear frameworks.

For the region as a whole, payments are becoming something far more significant than mere transaction tools delivered via apps: they are the critical foundation for cross-border digital growth, demanding foresight and proactive adaptation at the infrastructural level, setting the stage for the next 10 years.

The writer is product lead at 2C2P by Antom