PayNow Generation 2 and NETS QR: What Changes for Merchants

What MAS and ABS announced on 25 June 2026

The MAS media release says MAS and ABS will explore four areas of enhancement to PayNow, Singapore's instant payment scheme, as part of the PayNow Generation 2 (Gen2) study. The announcement was made by DPM Gan Kim Yong, who chairs MAS, and ABS Chairman Tan Teck Long at the ABS Annual Dinner.

Phase 1 consulted 37 organisations and benchmarked PayNow against 11 jurisdictions. MAS and ABS picked one priority enhancement from each of four themes. Here they are with the timing MAS gives:

The next phase works with industry on implementation steps and pilots. MAS says an implementation roadmap will be published by end-2026.

PayNow and NETS QR interoperability: what changes at the counter

Today PayNow and NETS are separate QR payment schemes. MAS explains that a merchant is acquired by either a PayNow bank or NETS, so not all banking apps or wallets can scan a NETS QR code, and the NETS app cannot pay a PayNow QR. That is why many counters display an SGQR label: one code that combines several schemes, with logos showing which ones the merchant accepts.

The Gen2 goal is that a customer can scan and pay at any merchant regardless of which scheme the merchant is on. For a shop, the practical effect is fewer "sorry, my app can't scan this" moments, especially for customers whose bank or wallet app does not support NETS QR today.

What we do not know yet: whether fees change for merchants, how refunds and settlement work across schemes, and whether your existing SGQR label keeps working unchanged. Those details should appear in the roadmap or in notices from your bank or NETS.

Deep-linked PayNow QR: what changes for online stores

This is the change most online sellers will feel. MAS describes today's flow: a customer must save the PayNow QR code, switch to their banking app, upload the code and pay, then return to the merchant's site. Each step loses some buyers, especially on a phone.

With deep-linking inside PayNow QR codes, choosing PayNow at checkout would open the banking app with payment details filled in, and the customer confirms. MAS says this should reduce payment steps and result in fewer lost sales for online merchants, and aims to have it ready within a year of June 2026.

Our guide on accepting PayNow on your website compares static QR, gateway and bank options as they stand today.

Request-to-pay and reconciliation: the longer-term changes

The fourth area bundles several capabilities aimed at business needs. MAS lists request-to-pay, structured data fields for automated reconciliation, a micro-payments rail, expanded cross-border connectivity, offline payment resilience and functions for agentic commerce, where software agents pay on a person's behalf.

For B2B sellers, request-to-pay and structured reference data are the interesting ones: they could let you send a payment request that the customer approves in their banking app, and receive the payment with an invoice number attached so your accounting software can match it. MAS calls these longer-term and says only foundational work begins in 2026, so do not plan around them yet.

What merchants should do now

Nothing in the announcement requires action today. A short checklist keeps you ready without wasting money:

If customers see an unexpected name when they scan your code, our guide on PayNow UEN QR business name display explains how to fix it. For choosing a gateway, see our payment gateway comparison for Singapore.

Do it yourself or get help?

If you already take PayNow through a gateway or your bank, keep going and wait for the roadmap. If you sell online and still post a static QR on a checkout page, moving to a gateway with dynamic PayNow QR is worth doing now: orders are matched automatically today, and you will be positioned to get deep-linked checkout when gateways add it.

IT Sorted is a Singapore-based team of developers with over 10 years of experience. Our Online Payment Setup (S$290) sets up Stripe or HitPay in your name with PayNow, cards and Apple Pay / Google Pay, adds checkout or payment buttons to your website, and runs test transactions before handover. You pay up front, brief us in writing, and track progress on your order page.