Payments
DuitNow QR in Malaysia: one code for every bank and wallet
DuitNow QR is Malaysia's national QR payment standard, operated by Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet) under Bank Negara's Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework. One EMVCo-based code accepts payment from any participating Malaysian bank or e-wallet app, addressed by mobile number, NRIC, passport number or business registration number.
The system
DuitNow ("duit" is Malay for money) is Malaysia's instant credit-transfer service, and DuitNow QR is its national QR standard, operated by Payments Network Malaysia (PayNet). The regulatory foundation is Bank Negara Malaysia's Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework (2019), which required payment providers to interoperate through a shared national QR rather than each running proprietary codes, the same one-standard bet Indonesia made with QRIS, arrived at by mandate rather than market forces.
The consequence a merchant cares about: one printed code, payable from any participating bank app or e-wallet in the country. Before the framework, a Malaysian counter needed a sticker per wallet; after it, wallet-specific stickers became redundant.
Addressing: DuitNow proxies
Like PromptPay and PayNow, DuitNow addresses accounts by proxy, an identifier registered against a bank account:
| Proxy | Who uses it |
|---|---|
| Mobile number | Individuals, the everyday P2P case |
| NRIC (MyKad number) | Individuals |
| Passport number | Foreign residents |
| Business registration number | Companies |
Registering your phone number means anyone can pay you knowing only that number, and the sending app displays the registered account holder's name for confirmation before the payer approves, the standard defence against paying the wrong person, and against the sticker-overlay fraud that targets every merchant-presented scheme.
The format underneath
DuitNow QR is a profile of the EMVCo merchant-presented
specification: tag-length-value fields, scheme
data in the merchant-account templates, currency and country fields (MYR, MY), optional
prefilled amount in field 54, and a CRC16 sealing the payload. Decode
any DuitNow sticker with /validate and you will find the same skeleton as a
PIX or PromptPay code, with PayNet's scheme
identifiers in the templates.
That shared EMVCo base is not academic. It is what makes cross-border linkage tractable.
Cross-border use
Malaysia participates in the ASEAN payment-connectivity push: DuitNow QR has operational linkages with Singapore (NETS/PayNow), Thailand and Indonesia, letting users of a partner country's participating apps scan DuitNow codes and vice versa, with currency conversion handled between the operators. Chinese wallet users can also pay at many Malaysian merchants through partnership arrangements.
The honest framing for travellers: coverage is real but partial. Whether a specific foreign app can pay a specific Malaysian code depends on that app's participation, merchant acquiring, and transaction type. PayNet is the authority for current linkages; test with a small amount before relying on it, exactly as you would with any cross-scheme payment.
For merchants
Onboarding runs through your bank or wallet provider, which issues your DuitNow QR, fees and settlement terms are theirs to state, not a generator's. Once you have the code, the deployment rules are universal: print at ≥ 4–5 cm for counter distance, keep the quiet zone, laminate or mount it where an overlay sticker would be obvious, and print your trading name large so a customer can match it against the name their app shows.
FAQ
What is DuitNow QR?
Malaysia's national QR payment standard, operated by PayNet under Bank Negara's Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework. One EMVCo-based code is payable from any participating Malaysian bank or e-wallet app.
What proxies can a DuitNow QR address?
A registered mobile number, NRIC (MyKad) number, passport number, or business registration number, each mapped to a bank account. The payer's app shows the registered name before the payment is approved.
Can foreign apps pay DuitNow QR codes?
Some can. Cross-border linkages with Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, plus Chinese wallet partnerships, allow participating foreign apps to scan Malaysian codes. Participation varies by app and merchant, so verify with a small test payment.
Is DuitNow QR the same format as PIX or PromptPay?
They are siblings, not the same. All three profile the EMVCo merchant-presented QR specification with their own scheme identifiers, so their payloads share a structure but are payable only within their own systems or via explicit linkages.
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Related
- QR payment standards compared: UPI, PIX, EPC, EMVCo, UPI uses its own upi:// deep link; PIX, PromptPay, QRIS, DuitNow and PayNow are all EMVCo tag-length-value profiles; EPC uses a twelve-line text block.…
- EMVCo merchant-presented QR: the spec behind PIX, QRIS and PromptPay, The EMVCo MPM spec defines the TLV payload national payment QRs share: two-digit ids and lengths, templates 26-51 for scheme data, CRC16 in field 63.
- PayNow QR in Singapore: proxies, UEN codes and the SGQR sticker, PayNow addresses a mobile number, NRIC/FIN or company UEN; SGQR bundles it with other schemes into the single unified sticker on Singaporean counters.
- PromptPay QR in Thailand: how the national payment code works, PromptPay is Thailand's national payment QR: EMVCo payloads addressing a phone, national ID or e-wallet proxy, readable by every Thai banking app.