ASEAN payment networks unveil ‘Next50’ roadmap for cross-border interoperability

The fragmented landscape of cross-border retail payments—marked by high costs, slow speeds, and limited transparency—has long been a major friction point for global commerce. In Southeast Asia, one of the world’s most dynamic and digitally-active regions, a monumental effort is underway to solve this problem, not in five years, but in fifty.

The recent signing of the George Town Accord by six of ASEAN’s key national payment networks is more than a simple Memorandum of Understanding (MoU); it is the launch of the Next50 Common Standards project and a strategic blueprint for the future of regional, and potentially global, payments. Here, we explore the profound significance, the immense challenges, and the strategic foresight embedded in this 50-year vision.

The George Town Accord brings together networks from five countries—Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet), Singapore’s NETS, Vietnam’s NAPAS, the Philippines’ BancNet, and Indonesia’s Artajasa and RINTIS—to establish a global standards body for non-card instant retail payments.

This is a critical pivot in regional strategy. ASEAN has already seen success with bilateral linkages, such as the real-time payment connection between Thailand’s PromptPay and Singapore’s PayNow, which allows for instant, low-cost mobile transfers. However, relying solely on a web of bilateral agreements—one between every two countries—is complex and unsustainable.

The Next50 project is the answer to this fragmentation. As PayNet’s Group CEO, Farhan Ahmad, noted, what was missing was a “cross-jurisdiction industry-level space to collaborate and exchange operational and technical insights”. The Accord creates this dedicated forum, allowing these six systems—which collectively serve over 538 million people—to collaborate on developing common standards, ensuring shared ownership and strengthening overall system resilience.

The scope of the Next50 project reveals its true ambition. It is focused on standardizing transactions not just for current methods like QR payments and account-to-account (A2A) transfers, but also for future-forward, non-card mobile payments powered by Near Field Communication (NFC), biometrics, and agentic Artificial Intelligence (AI).

The half-century timeline is a silent admission of the massive undertaking required. The success of a seamless digital economy is not merely a matter of connecting technical wires; it requires the deep harmonization of complex, multi-jurisdictional elements, including:

• Data and Messaging Standards: Establishing technical protocols that ensure rich, consistent data flows across borders, a goal mirrored by global initiatives like the G20’s push for the ISO 20022 standard.
• Regulatory Alignment: Harmonizing supervisory and legal frameworks, particularly for crucial areas like Anti-Money Laundering/Countering the Financing of Terrorism (AML/CFT) compliance, which currently varies significantly across nations.
• Safety and Integrity: Directly tackling fraud and transaction disputes, which will be essential as AI-driven scams become more sophisticated and transaction volumes soar.

By setting a 50-year goal, the signatories acknowledge that achieving this level of alignment—which involves legislative changes, national sovereignty considerations, and building cross-country trust—is a generational task.

Perhaps the most insightful aspect of the George Town Accord is its commitment to balancing global interoperability with national payment sovereignty. The goal is to “link domestic payment networks globally in a way that still protects each nation’s payment sovereignty”.

This is the great compromise of regional integration. Each country’s domestic payment system exists for two primary reasons: sovereignty and building payment efficiency to lower costs. By retaining control over their national systems, central banks can ensure financial stability, enforce local regulations, and protect against systemic risk.

However, this careful preservation of sovereignty must not become an impediment. The success of Next50 will ultimately be measured by its ability to simplify, standardize, and streamline the operational rules around fraud prevention and dispute resolution without requiring a full surrender of national control.

The George Town Accord marks a significant milestone in ASEAN’s long journey toward a unified digital economy. By committing to a standards-driven, multilateral approach, the region is crafting a blueprint for how a group of diverse, sovereign nations can build the digital plumbing required for the next era of cross-border commerce. The road may be 50 years long, but the destination—cheaper, faster, and more inclusive financial services for Southeast Asia’s vast population—is worth the wait.