DuitNow QR migration in Malaysia: merchant checklist to 2028

On 30 June 2026 Bank Negara Malaysia issued its Interoperable Fund Transfer Framework: proprietary QR networks run by banks and e-wallets must shut down by 30 June 2028. All QR acceptance moves to PayNet's Real-time Retail Payments Platform (RPP), which already runs DuitNow Transfer and DuitNow QR.

Two years sounds like plenty. One restriction applies now, though: during the transition, no new merchants can be onboarded to proprietary QR networks. If you are launching in Malaysia in 2026, building on a single wallet's QR makes no sense.

What Bank Negara Malaysia changed

The framework replaces the 2019 one. According to RinggitPlus and Lowyat.NET, the points that matter for merchants are:

• proprietary QR networks close by 30 June 2028, after a two-year transition;
• no new merchant onboarding to those networks in the meantime;
• acquirers must let merchants accept payments from customers of every participating bank and e-wallet;
• processors with separate agreements with foreign e-wallets outside the shared network are exempt, which RinggitPlus says covers very few transactions.

PayNet is 35.5% owned by the central bank, with the rest held by 11 Malaysian financial institutions. PayNet has confirmed wallets can keep loyalty and cashback programmes.

How to move to DuitNow QR in five steps

Your bank or payment provider handles the migration itself. Prepare anyway:

1. List every place your QR appears: checkout, invoices, emails, in-store stickers.
2. Ask your acquirer whether your code is DuitNow QR or a single-network QR, and when it will migrate.
3. Check how payments from other apps will look in your settlement files and which field you will reconcile on.
4. Replace individual wallet logos at checkout with one code labelled as accepting any bank or e-wallet.
5. If you run wallet promotions, check the terms: some cashback is only paid when customers scan the wallet's own branded code.

Example: one code versus a single-wallet code

Illustration, not data: a web store takes 2,000 QR payments a month on a code that only one wallet can scan. If 30% of shoppers choosing QR use another app and half of them leave, that is around 300 lost payments a month, or roughly RM36,000 at an average order of RM120.

Your numbers will differ, but a universal code widens your audience with no new integration. We would switch as soon as the acquirer offers it rather than wait for 2028.

How much DuitNow QR costs merchants

The sources give no merchant rates. What is known: DuitNow Transfer payments up to RM5,000 stay free for sender and receiver, as before. The QR merchant discount rate is set by your acquirer and belongs in your contract. Our fee calculator helps compare offers.

What happens to cross-border QR payments

Banks will eventually have to offer QR payments abroad through the shared network, but that depends on the Nexus project, which has no launch date. Existing QR links with Singapore and China continue separately, so customers from those markets keep their usual way to pay. Indonesia went down the single national QR road earlier; see our piece on zero MDR on QRIS.

To find payment methods for Malaysia, including DuitNow QR, start at Malaysia.

This article was prepared by the PayFlow editorial team with the help of AI, based on the public sources listed above. It is for information only and is not legal or financial advice; provider terms change — check current terms with an operator.