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Real-time payments ( RTPs ) are becoming an integral part of everyday transactions across Southeast Asia, with strong RTP adoption among consumers and small businesses, opening way to opportunities to enhance security and build greater confidence in the fast-evolving payment ecosystem, according to a recent regional study.
RTPs are widely used and represent about 26% of customer transactions for small and medium sized businesses ( SMBs ), behind credit, debit and prepaid card payments ( 35% ) and ahead of digital wallets ( 15% ), finds the study entitled "Strengthening Southeast Asia’s Real-Time Payments: Security, Trust and New Pathways to Financial Access", which surveyed 5,500 consumers and 2,100 small and medium-sized businesses ( SMBs ) across Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam.
While adoption is accelerating, the report – written in partnership with the Global Finance and Technology Network, Nextrade Group and the Visa Economic Empowerment Institute – identifies trust and security as key priorities for sustaining growth.
Different markets had varying concerns about using real-time payments, but the top three barriers identified in Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand include:
Singapore
Malaysia
Thailand
Shared opportunity for progress
Users across Southeast Asia seek greater consistency, transparency and reassurance in their payment experiences, especially around transaction tracking, refunds and dispute resolution. Customer-related issues are the primary pain points for SMBs in Southeast Asia when it comes to real-time payments.
Notably, 60% of SMBs report challenges like customers paying the wrong amount ( 21% ) and delays from slow transaction completion ( 21% ). Additionally, 38% are concerned about fraud and scams – a leading payment pain point in Singapore, second only to customers taking too long to pay and causing queue delays ( 29% ).
Cross-border adoption of real-time payments remains more limited, with 41% of SMBs noting that tourists prefer international cards, and some of these businesses do not have card acceptance.
Collaboration, interoperability
No single sector, the report emphasizes, can address these challenges alone. Robust public-private partnerships – uniting governments, regulators, payment networks, technology providers and businesses – are critical to setting clear standards, sharing intelligence and coordinating rapid responses to emerging threats.
As RTP adoption accelerates, the report points out, Visa is working with industry partners, banks, fintechs and regulators to enhance security, interoperability and user protections. The report highlights opportunities to embed stronger risk controls, including Visa Account-to-Account Protect, which in a recent UK pilot identified a significant share of fraudulent transactions that had already passed through existing bank and payment service provider fraud detection systems. Visa’s Scam Disruption initiative also leverages artificial intelligence ( AI )-driven risk detection and partnerships to help protect consumers and businesses from evolving scam typologies.
“RTPs are transforming the way people and businesses move money, but speed must go hand-in-hand with security,” says Serene Gay, Visa’s group country manager for regional Southeast Asia, and senior vice-president, global clients and acquirers for Asia-Pacific. “By combining AI-driven risk detection with our global expertise, we help partners stay ahead of evolving threats and build trust across the ecosystem. Fraud prevention is foundational to the confidence that enables growth for consumers, businesses and the entire payments network.”
