Thailand’s PromptPay digital payment system — one of Southeast Asia’s most successful financial infrastructure projects — could serve as a blueprint for modernising the global trade finance sector, according to Rahul Bhargava, a senior financial sector advisor at the World Bank and interim chief operating officer of Contour Network.
Bhargava made the case at Money20/20 Asia 2026 in Bangkok, arguing that while consumer payments in Southeast Asia have advanced rapidly, the trade finance industry remains mired in inefficiency. The sector continues to rely heavily on paper-based letters of credit, manual bank confirmations via phone and email, and disconnected systems that force banks, buyers, sellers, and logistics firms to coordinate across siloes.
Trade Finance’s Chronic Bottlenecks
A critical problem, Bhargava explained, is the lack of true data integration. When payment terms are altered through informal channels such as email or WhatsApp but primary documents are not updated, disputes and operational errors follow. Trade documents frequently sit in separate systems with no automatic reconciliation, leading to delays that cost businesses time and money.
In contrast, modern payment platforms like PromptPay can send settlement confirmations almost instantly, notifying recipients within seconds that funds have arrived. Yet in trade finance, organisations still depend on manual confirmations from banks — a stark contrast in speed and reliability.
PromptPay: A Dual Approach That Works
PromptPay’s success, launched in 2016, stems from what Bhargava called a powerful synergy of top-down and bottom-up forces. The Bank of Thailand set clear roadmaps, established common standards for digital payments, and created regulatory sandboxes for innovation trials. Meanwhile, banks, payment providers, and citizens embraced the technology, transforming daily transaction volumes from hundreds of thousands at launch to over 81 million today.
The system allows users to transfer money using citizen IDs, mobile phone numbers, or bank account numbers with minimal fees. Transfers are free under THB 5,000 (US$153), with larger transactions charged nominal fees of THB 2 to THB 10. PromptPay is also used for government social welfare disbursements, tax reimbursements, B2B payments, and electronic donations.
Cross-Border Expansion Underway
The Bank of Thailand is actively connecting PromptPay with similar systems across the region, including Malaysia’s DuitNow and Singapore’s PayNow, enabling seamless cross-border transactions. QR code payment connectivity has also been extended to Hong Kong and Laos.
Data compiled by the Emerging Payments Association Asia shows dramatic shifts in Thailand: account-to-account transactions accounted for 41% of all point-of-sale payment value in 2024, surpassing cash at 31%, giving cashless payments a total 66% share. Digital banking accounts reached 181.8 million in January 2026, with transaction volumes up 10.6% year-on-year.
Implications for Global Trade
Bhargava’s proposal is that the global trade sector could replicate PromptPay’s regulatory-technology partnership model. The Contour Network, which operates a blockchain-enabled platform for digitising letters of credit since 2017, has been exploring how to integrate trade digitalisation with payments and settlement within a unified ecosystem. If successful, the model could dramatically reduce trade processing times and costs across Southeast Asia and beyond.
For ASEAN regulators and financial institutions, the story offers a compelling case study: state-backed standard-setting, combined with private-sector adoption and a permissive regulatory environment, can produce payment infrastructure that scales to hundreds of millions in daily transactions — and the next frontier may be transforming the multi-trillion-dollar trade finance industry.
Read the full story: https://fintechnews.sg/131823/thailand/promptpay-as-a-blueprint-to-modernize-trade-finance-and-infrastructure/