About this study
From February 2025 to February 2026, DGA–Albright Stonebridge Group (DGA-ASG), with support from the Gates Foundation, conducted a landscape study of instant payment systems (IPS) across Southeast Asia (SEA). The study reviewed domestic IPSs in the region, with a particular focus on their level of inclusiveness and degree of interconnection.
To create this report, DGA-ASG conducted extensive qualitative and quantitative research and interviewed stakeholders across SEA. In addition to almost all central banks in the region, stakeholders include ministry, regulators, payment system operators, the banking sector, and the fintech sector. Across these engagements, the status and inclusiveness of domestic IPSs, the adjacent ecosystem factors influencing the adoption of digital payments, and the bilateral and multilateral interconnections that countries have established or are planning to establish were discussed.
Initial findings were shared with central bank stakeholders at a roundtable, along with individual country-specific sessions, at the Singapore Fintech Festival Insights Forum in November 2025.
Gates Foundation intends to complete its Inclusive Financial Systems (IFS) strategy and hand over its work to the broader global development ecosystem by 2030. In line with this strategy, the Foundation will work with its grantees to support the development of inclusive, interconnected IPSs in the region, convening stakeholders to share insights and information on open source tools, such as Mojaloop and Tazama. The Foundation will also share the learnings of this study with other global development partners to encourage continued support for IIPSs in the region. Critically, each country in Southeast Asia has its own unique economic, institutional, regulatory, operational and cultural contexts; therefore, the Foundation will emphasize that any support to countries in the region to advance inclusive financial systems must be tailor made and cannot be a “one size fits all approach.”
We look forward to the continued rapid advancement of IIPSs in Southeast Asia. These systems can benefit millions of people and businesses across the region, expanding access to faster, safer, and more affordable digital payments and strengthening participation in the broader global economy.