JAKARTA - Singapore-based bank and fintech company DBS and Ant International have entered a new partnership to widen cross-border payment links and deepen fintech cooperation across Asia. 

This way, migrant workers and their families could gain access to more flexible and convenient digital payment options.

The agreement, signed on the sidelines of the Singapore Fintech Festival 2025, commits both companies to expand digital payments, remittances and fintech solutions across the region.

Under this partnership, DBS PayLah! will join the Alipay+ ecosystem, allowing more than three million users to scan Alipay+ QR codes at over 150 million merchants in more than 100 markets.

Both sides are also studying a bank-to-wallet model that aims to support near-instant transfers between DBS accounts and 1.8 billion Alipay+ user wallets, using ISO 20022 and the SWIFT network.

While still in the exploration stage, the system would link Singapore-based DBS customers with families using Alipay+ partner wallets across Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Thailand, India, Bangladesh and Nepal. These routes are already among Singapore’s busiest migrant corridors.

DBS and Ant International will also work on digital tools for small and medium enterprises, including faster cross-border settlement options and AI-powered payment systems meant to simplify operations for regional businesses.

While the MoU does not offer a rollout date for the remittance link, both companies say the pilot work is underway.

Remittances, part of migrant workers’ paychecks that they send back home to their families, represent a large economic stream that keeps the stove lit for a lot of families in Asia Pacific.

Countries like the Philippines, for example, recorded a 9% GDP contribution from remittances alone. Most of them were sent from the United States, according to the World Bank’s statistics. For countries like Nepal, remittances’ percentage of GDP contribution is even higher, recorded at around 26% of the country’s GDP in 2024.