Deloitte reveals the latest trends in the cross-border payment revolution

Throughout the past decade, the rapid proliferation of mobile payment solutions has been a key enabler for growing digital economies across Asia and beyond. The robust growth of mobile payments has attracted attention from major players from numerous industries, leading to a more intricate and collaborate ecosystem. Established financial institutions, fintech innovators, policymakers, and even the merchants and consumers themselves have collectively contributed to the evolution of the digital payment space.

Building on our 2020 report, ‘The Next Wave: Emerging digital life in South and Southeast Asia’, which explores the emerging digital life in South and Southeast Asia, this paper examines new policy, industrial and technological developments over the past four years in the Asia Pacific region. Governments’ initiatives to develop digital economies, as well as public-private collaboration in modernizing payment infrastructure, has helped to install fast payment systems and national QR code schemes. Accelerating cross-border commerce has spurred the demand for global and regional payment interoperability. Meanwhile, to meet customers’ growing preferences for an omnichannel shopping experience, e-wallets have expanded beyond just payments to now incorporate a suite of services through mini apps. All these factors have contributed to the checkout revolution, as the checkout moment no longer serves as the end of customer journey but opens up new possibilities for a much more extended and varied consumer engagement and outreach journey.

Amid the constantly evolving cross-border checkout revolution, we have identified four key trends:

1. The Asia Pacific region leads the world in digital payment adoption, accounting for nearly two-thirds of global digital wallet spend at US$9.8 trillion, with the highest wallet penetration rates among all regions. Digital wallets are attracting financial institutions, card companies and ecommerce platforms to join the race, all extending partnerships with e-wallets and fintech players to include them in their payment ecosystems.
2. With cross-border payment interoperability becoming a dominant theme to boost regional e-wallet adoption in the Asia Pacific region, public and private efforts have been made to construct and upgrade digital infrastructure. For instance, national QR schemes from Singapore and Cambodia have partnered with Alipay+ to bridge the cross-border gap between their home QR schemes. Cross-border payment linkages have been launched among central banks in Southeast Asia, giving birth to an interoperable QR code payment ecosystem in the ASEAN region.
3. Responding to the trend of omnichannel commerce post-pandemic, e-wallets and banking apps are quickly evolving into super apps by assembling a suite of services into their integrated platform, such as in 2023 the super app Livin’ by Mandiri ranked as the fastest-growing mobile app in Indonesia. Many retailers and merchants are undergoing omnichannel transformations to create a seamless, personalized user experience.
4. Payment solutions and innovations have become an anchor for inclusive and sustainable growth. Fintech innovators are empowering Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (‘MSMEs’) to grow their businesses and outreach globally, while assisting their digital and sustainability transformation by building their creditworthiness and data collection capabilities.

The fast-growing and changing payment landscape has also increased the threat of fraud and financial crime. Fraudsters are constantly adapting their techniques and weaponizing new technologies to exploit vulnerabilities in the payment ecosystem, particularly when cross-border payment reforms are rapidly carried out. Concerns over financial crime are further heightened as more MSMEs deepen digitalization while having limited resources allocated to cybersecurity. Industry-wide collaboration and public-private partnerships will be paramount to carrying out cooperative, pragmatic approaches to bring fintech innovations and digitalization to fruition and to drive long-term social impact.