Worldpay, now Global Payments has released its 11th annual Global Payments Report (GPR), revealing that spending via digital wallets surpassed cards in Hong Kong for the first time.
Account-to-account (A2A) payments are also staging a quiet revolution across Asia and are set to reshape how consumers choose to pay in several markets across the region through 2030.
Asia’s wallet-first future accelerates
- APAC remains the world’s most wallet led region, with digital wallets accounting for 77% of online spend (US$ 2.7T) and 63% of in-person spend (US$ 6.3T) in 2025 – the highest share of any region worldwide.
- Adoption is broad-based in India, where digital wallets accounted for 68% e-commerce and 61% POS spend and South Korea, where digital wallets are forecast to overtake cards in-store and online respectively by 2030.
- Wallets are thriving through diverse funding and function models — card‑funded in Hong Kong and Singapore, A2A‑driven in India and Thailand and superapps in Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines.
“Asia’s payment landscape is evolving faster than anywhere else in the world,” comments Phil Pomford, General Manager, Global eCommerce, APAC, Global Payments.
“Wallet adoption continues to surge, A2A rails are gaining scale across multiple markets, and interoperable QR standards are stitching the region into a unified, low‑cost real‑time payments corridor.
“This shift isn’t just changing how people pay — it’s reshaping cross‑border trade, travel and digital commerce. Merchants that enable these preferred methods will be the ones who benefit most from the region’s accelerating digital economy.”
Real-time A2A networks reshape Asia’s retail payments
- A2A is growing rapidly across Southeast Asia where strong national payment systems are playing a central role in the growth of digital payments.
- Thailand is now one of the world’s most A2A-dominant markets, with the government’s instant payment network, PromptPay, driving 44% of online spend and 43% of in-person spend in 2025.
- The popularity of domestic QR Code[2] systems to connect merchants and consumers is driving A2A payment growth, owing to their lower cost, intuitive use and reliance on ubiquitous smartphones.
Interoperability among these systems is making payments easier for consumers traveling regionally and those shopping cross-border online.
Asia’s digital economy gains momentum
Asia’s payments landscape continues to evolve at speed, reshaping how consumers and businesses transact across the region.
- Forward-thinking public policy initiatives, including the Hong Kong Money Authority’s Faster Payments System (FPS), the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Singapore Quick Response Code (SGQR) and Singapore’s instant bank transfer service, PayNow, are accelerating regional interoperability and unlocking more seamless, borderless consumer experiences.
Notable regional highlights include:
Hong Kong: The Digital Payments era arrives
Hong Kong’s payment landscape has reached a historic milestone:
- For the first time, digital wallets have overtaken cards as the leading payment method.
- The report shows digital wallets accounted for 41% of e-commerce and 45% of point-of-sale (POS) transaction value in 2025.
The rapid rise of A2A payments being driven by Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System (FPS) and Hong Kong Common QR Code (HKQR).
- A2A already represents 19% of e-commerce and 9% of POS transaction value in 2025.
- Worldpay forecasts this to reach 23% of e-commerce and 13% of POS value by 2030, as QR codes and A2A payments increasingly become an embedded part of everyday commerce.
This marks a fundamental evolution of the payment landscape that credit cards have defined for a better part of a decade.
Singapore: A2A payments gaining ground in a card-led market
Singapore remains a card-led market for POS transactions:
- Cards account for 44% of e-commerce (US$ 10.8B) and 40% of POS (US$ 55B) spend in 2025,
- Digital wallets follow closely at 40% (US$ 10B) and 36% (US$ 49B) respectively.
An emerging trend to watch is the trajectory of A2A payments:
- PayNow, Singapore’s real-time payment system, is one driver of growth in A2A, with A2A projected to reach 13% of e-commerce and 15% of POS transaction value by 2030.
What is most notable about this quiet A2A revolution is its expanding regional influence:
- Singapore (PayNow), Thailand (PromptPay), and Malaysia (DuitNow) are providing an alternative to global credit card networks through an interconnected real-time payments network.
These interconnected networks which enable, instant, low-cost, real-time cross-border transfers are signalling a transformative turning point in the payment landscape in the region.