8B

The conversation around cross-border payments is entering a new phase. The Financial Stability Board (FSB) has recently called for looking beyond the current G20 Roadmap and starting the discussion about what comes next after 2027. The message is: improving payments is no longer just about making existing correspondent banking faster. The next chapter is about interoperability. Not one global payment network, not one dominant wallet, not one payment scheme. Instead, the future is a world where national payment systems can work together. We're already seeing this shift: • Governments continue investing in domestic instant payment systems and national QR networks. • Regional interoperability initiatives are accelerating. • Cross-border commerce increasingly depends on connecting local payment ecosystems rather than replacing them. At 8B, this is the infrastructure we're building. We connect payment providers, banks and businesses to government-backed QR and A2A payment rails through a single integration helping domestic payment systems become globally accessible while remaining locally governed. #CrossBorderPayments #QRPayments #InstantPayments #Interoperability #Fintech #Payments #OpenBanking #NationalQR #A2A #FSB

People outside China often think WeChat Pay is just another digital wallet. It isn't. For millions of Chinese consumers, discovery, communication, booking and payment happen within a single digital ecosystem. Through Official Accounts, Mini Programs, customer chat and WeChat Pay, businesses can guide customers from inspiration to checkout without leaving the app. If you're serving Chinese travellers or cross-border shoppers, you're not simply adding another payment method. You're becoming part of the ecosystem your customers already trust. Cross-border payments don't start at checkout. They start with understanding the customer's ecosystem.

Kazakhstan's QR payments have reached a turning point. Over the past decade, QR payments have transformed from a niche payment method into the dominant way to pay in Kazakhstan. According to Finprom.kz, QR payments now account for 87.6% of all cashless transactions, up from just 12.5% ten years ago. During the same period, transaction volume increased 159-fold, reaching KZT 73.5 trillion in January-May 2026. This growth did more than change how people pay. It reshaped competition across the banking sector. For years, QR acceptance became one of the main tools for customer acquisition. Banks invested heavily in expanding their merchant networks, knowing that once a customer started paying through their application, it became much easier to introduce additional financial products and services. On July 19, Kazakhstan enters the next stage of this evolution. The National Payment Corporation's unified QR infrastructure is expected to make QR payments interoperable across participating banks. Consumers will be able to pay from their preferred banking application regardless of which bank provided the merchant's QR acceptance. As payment infrastructure becomes shared, competition shifts away from ownership of payment rails toward customer experience. Going forward, banks will increasingly compete on the quality of their mobile applications, pricing, loyalty programs, value-added services, security, and user experience rather than on exclusive payment acceptance. The National Bank of Kazakhstan has also made its position clear. Incentives designed to encourage customers to bypass the unified QR infrastructure, including higher cashback or bonuses available only through proprietary QR networks, may be treated as attempts to circumvent the new interoperable ecosystem. Kazakhstan's transition reflects a broader trend we're seeing across many markets. The first generation of QR payments was about building proprietary ecosystems. The next generation is about building interoperable infrastructure. At 8B, we believe this shift creates the foundation for the future of cross-border QR payments. Once domestic payment systems become interoperable at the national level, connecting them internationally becomes significantly more scalable. #QRPayments #NationalQR #Kazakhstan #Interoperability #CrossBorderPayments #Fintech

"They'll always be local solutions." — Fernando Estevez Vazquez, Go-to-Market Lead for Scan-to-Pay at 8B In this Unfiltered Payment Conversations episode at Money20/20 Europe, Fernando names the real challenge facing account-to-account payments - and it isn't the interface. PIX, UPI, and instant rails everywhere have shown they can match or beat cards on speed and cost. What they haven't cracked is the thing cards spent decades building: a global, interoperable network of acceptance and trust that works across borders. Without it, even the best domestic system stays domestic. Closing that gap — making instant payments interoperable and acceptable everywhere, in-store included — is exactly the problem 8B is built to solve. Thank you Sandra Mianda🖇 for putting this conversation together. #Payments #A2A #Interoperability #ScanToPay #CrossBorder #Money2020 #8B

Malaysia joins a growing list of countries building payment infrastructure around interoperability rather than fragmentation, a trend we're seeing across Asia and increasingly around the world. Bank Negara Malaysia has introduced its Interoperable Fund Transfer Framework, setting the direction for the country's QR payments ecosystem. The new framework requires proprietary (closed-loop) QR networks to transition to PayNet's shared DuitNow infrastructure, with: • Proprietary QR operations ending by 30 June 2028 • No new merchant onboarding to proprietary QR networks during the transition • QR payments moving onto a common interoperable infrastructure This is more than a domestic infrastructure upgrade. For cross-border payments, interoperable national QR systems create the foundation for connecting payment ecosystems across countries. As more markets adopt unified QR standards, financial institutions, PSPs and merchants gain a clearer path to enabling international Scan-to-Pay experiences without relying on dozens of individual integrations. #QRPayments #QRInteroperability #DuitNow #PayNet #Malaysia #A2A #ScanToPay #DigitalPayments

Cross-border payments continue to accelerate. India's UPI is now live in Greece through a partnership between Eurobank and NPCI, allowing Greek merchants to accept payments directly from Indian UPI accounts. The focus is clear: serving India's growing outbound tourism and global diaspora with familiar payment experiences. At the same time, Paytm has received its Payment Institution licence in Luxembourg, paving the way for passporting across the EU. Rather than launching another consumer wallet, Paytm is targeting the European acquiring market with B2B infrastructure for accepting Asian payment methods and enabling international payment flows. These developments reinforce a broader industry trend: cross-border commerce is increasingly being built by connecting domestic payment ecosystems, not replacing them. As more national payment systems expand internationally, interoperability becomes the key enabler for merchants, PSPs and financial institutions. At 8B, we're building the infrastructure that helps connect these national payment networks through a single integration. https://lnkd.in/eATjx7dd #CrossBorderPayments #UPI #QRPayments #PaymentInfrastructure #Interoperability #A2A #Fintech

Domestic A2A adoption is the easy part. The hard part – and the real contest with cards – is making national schemes work across borders. Fernando Estevez Vazquez on why Asia is already living what Europe is still debating.

With Erste Bank Oesterreich and Raiffeisen joining the European Payments Initiative (EPI), Wero is expanding into Austria while also preparing to enter Luxembourg and the Netherlands. The network now reaches 55+ million customers and is evolving beyond P2P into e-commerce, in-store payments, subscriptions, and merchant services. National A2A schemes are becoming interoperable, creating new opportunities for cross-border acceptance. At 8B, we're building the infrastructure that connects these payment networks.  #Wero #EPI #A2A #AccountToAccount #CrossBorderPayments #OpenBanking

Uzbekistan has officially launched UzQR, its unified national QR payment system. From July 1, merchants across the country are required to accept payments through a single standardized QR code compatible with both Humo and Uzcard. Another country has moved from fragmented QR acceptance toward a nationally coordinated payment infrastructure. This isn't just a domestic payments story. Every new sovereign QR scheme adds another network that banks, PSPs and fintechs will eventually want to reach across borders. We've already seen this pattern with QRIS, UPI, VietQR and PromptPay. The next phase is about creating interoperability between national payment systems. That's exactly the infrastructure we're building at 8B. #CrossBorderPayments #QRPayments #NationalQR #UzQR #Uzbekistan #Interoperability

Another important step toward seamless cross-border payments: UnionPay International and Kazakhstan’s National Payment Corporation have announced plans to integrate UnionPay QR payments with the country’s National QR infrastructure. Once launched, UnionPay cardholders will be able to pay via QR codes at merchants connected to Kazakhstan’s Interbank Mobile Payment System. This will make payments easier and more convenient for Chinese tourists and business travelers across the country. At 8B, we are proud to support Kazakhstan’s National QR ecosystem and the expansion of interoperable digital payments. #8B #NationalQR #Kazakhstan #UnionPay #Fintech #DigitalPayments #CrossBorderPayments