MAS And BSP Pursuing Cross-border Payment Linkages

The Monetary Authority of Singapore ("MAS") and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ("BSP") have signed an enhanced FinTech Cooperation Agreement ("CA") to facilitate interoperable payments between Singapore and the Philippines. The enhanced CA builds on the earlier 2017 agreement to broaden the scope of FinTech collaboration and partnership between MAS and BSP.

The CA will facilitate the linkage of both countries' real-time and QR payment systems, to provide instant, seamless and low-cost cross-border payments. This is a significant initiative given the sizeable remittance flows between Singapore and Philippines, which totalled SGD 2.89 billion in 2020; and cater to the pre-pandemic yearly average of approximately 900,000 travellers between both countries.