Real-Time Payment Rails Comparison Matrix
Reference for Pix, UPI, SPEI, PromptPay, PayNow, NAPAS 247, InstaPay, and DuitNow: MDR model, settlement, identifiers, and cross-border readiness.
Eight real-time payment rails compared: UPI and Pix P2P mandate zero MDR; SPEI and PayNow Corporate are market-priced. All eight deliver T+0 irrevocable settlement. None have native dispute mechanisms — operators must build independent refund infrastructure.
A quick-reference matrix for payment operators evaluating real-time rail coverage across Asia and Latin America. Every row is drawn from PaymentBrief articles cited in the source section — data points not supported by those articles are omitted rather than estimated.
For the narrative comparison — why MDR mandates drive card displacement, how governance model determines rule-change predictability, and the identifier architecture that determines consumer adoption speed — see Pix vs UPI vs SPEI vs PromptPay: Real-Time Rail Economics Compared.
Comparison matrix
| Rail | Country | Scheme operator | Merchant MDR | Payment identifier | Foreign operator path |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pix | Brazil | BCB (central bank — direct operator) | P2P: 0% mandate (BCB policy); P2B: market-priced | Pix Key: CPF / CNPJ / phone / email / random alphanumeric | Payment Institution (PI) licence or licensed local partner |
| UPI | India | NPCI (consortium, RBI-supervised) | 0% — government mandate (Jan 2020) | VPA (Virtual Payment Address, e.g. name@bankhandle) | Payment Aggregator (PA) licence or licensed local partner |
| SPEI | Mexico | Banxico (central bank — direct operator) | Market-priced (no mandate); CoDi/DiMo QR layers add consumer-facing interface | CLABE (18-digit account number); CoDi QR or DiMo phone-number initiation for consumer flows | IFPE licence or licensed local partner |
| PromptPay | Thailand | NITMX (consortium, BOT-supervised) | P2P: 0% mandate; P2B: market-priced (0–1% typical) | Phone number or Thai National ID; Thai QR (EMVCo-compatible) | BOT-licensed PSP or NITMX participant (direct or via local partner) |
| PayNow | Singapore | ABS (Association of Banks in Singapore), MAS-supervised | P2P: free; Corporate P2B: near-zero via bank API; 0.3–0.8% via aggregator | P2P: phone / NRIC; Corporate: UEN (Unique Entity Number) | Singapore corporate bank account (DBS/OCBC/UOB) + PayNow Corporate API, or aggregator (Stripe SG, Adyen) |
| NAPAS 247 / VietQR | Vietnam | NAPAS (state-owned, SBV-majority controlled) | Market-priced | Bank account number; VietQR unified QR overlay (40+ banks enrolled) | SBV payment intermediary licence or licensed local partner (VNPay, licensed bank) |
| InstaPay | Philippines | BancNet / PPMI (BSP-mandated NRPS framework) | Market-priced; PHP 25/transaction consumer fee (BSP has pushed for zero) | Account number or phone/email alias; QR Ph (BSP-mandated national QR standard) | BSP-licensed bank or EMI, or aggregator (PayMongo, Xendit, 2C2P) |
| DuitNow | Malaysia | PayNet (Payments Network Malaysia), Bank Negara Malaysia-supervised | P2P: 0% mandate; P2B: market-priced | Phone / MyKad (national ID) / business registration number; DuitNow QR (unified standard) | Bank Negara Malaysia-licensed bank or e-money operator |
All eight rails deliver T+0 irrevocable settlement 24/7/365. Per-transaction limits vary by rail and account tier — see per-rail watchouts below.
No native dispute mechanism: the universal rule
None of these eight rails have a chargeback or recall mechanism. Irrevocability is by design — it is what makes settlement trustworthy for recipients — but it means that once a transfer is sent, it cannot be retrieved without the recipient actively returning the funds. Operators must build independent refund infrastructure, clear refund policies, and customer support workflows that handle errors and fraud at the application layer.
The workflows that apply to Visa and Mastercard chargebacks do not apply here. For the unit economics of card-side disputes, see The True Cost of a Chargeback. For the Visa and Mastercard reason code maps, see Scheme Chargeback Rules in 2026.
Cross-border readiness: live links as of mid-2026
| Corridor | Status | How it works | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| UPI ↔ PayNow (India–Singapore) | Live (Feb 2023) | Mobile number–to–mobile number; NPCI–MAS bilateral | Consumer P2P focus |
| UPI ↔ AANI (India–UAE) | Live | Bilateral link | |
| PromptPay ↔ PayNow (Thailand–Singapore) | Live (2021) | QR scan; Thai user can pay Singapore merchant | Consumer/tourist use case; first cross-border real-time QR link globally |
| PromptPay ↔ DuitNow (Thailand–Malaysia) | Live | QR bilateral | |
| QRIS ↔ PayNow (Indonesia–Singapore) | Live (2023) | QR bilateral; QRIS is Indonesia’s unified QR standard layered on BI-FAST | Consumer/merchant QR only |
| DuitNow ↔ QRIS (Malaysia–Indonesia) | Live | QR bilateral | |
| SPEI ↔ FedACH (Mexico–US) | Live (bilateral) | ACH timing on US side — not real-time end-to-end | Remittance corridor use case; stablecoin off-ramps (e.g. Bitso → SPEI) are the faster alternative |
| Pix ↔ any | Not live (mid-2026) | BCB in discussions; no confirmed bilateral link | Stablecoin intermediaries are the practical cross-border route |
| InstaPay ↔ any | Not live | ||
| NAPAS 247 ↔ any | Not live |
Project Nexus (BIS Innovation Hub): multilateral framework targeting UPI, PayNow, PromptPay, DuitNow, and InstaPay. Nexus Global Payments incorporated in Singapore in 2025; live pilot running, full implementation targeted 2026. If delivered, a UPI user could pay a PromptPay merchant without a separate India–Thailand bilateral agreement.
Per-rail operator watchouts
Pix
- BCB nighttime limits (Pix Noturno): BRL 1,000 cap per transaction between 8pm–6am; higher limits apply during the day — relevant for 24/7 e-commerce operators
- CPF-based Pix Key doubles as identity verification — useful for KYC enrichment flows
- Dynamic QR (Pix Cobrança) is required for automated reconciliation; static QR does not embed order references
- No live cross-border link as of mid-2026; USDC-based off-ramps via licensed local providers (EBANX, PagBrasil) are the practical international settlement route
UPI
- Zero MDR eliminates per-transaction acceptance revenue; monetisation must come from credit, FX, or value-added services — not payment processing fees
- PhonePe and Google Pay hold 85%+ of UPI transaction volume; foreign operators access via a licensed Payment Aggregator, not via direct NPCI membership
- VPA is a constructed handle (name@bankhandle) — not tied to a pre-existing national ID like Pix’s CPF; users must actively create and remember their VPA at onboarding
- Typical transaction cap: INR 100,000 for standard UPI; up to INR 500,000 for BHIM UPI and verified merchants
SPEI
- 18-digit CLABE entry is the main consumer friction point — SPEI without CoDi QR or DiMo phone-number initiation is not viable for consumer-facing checkout flows
- High average transaction value (~MXN 41,000 / ~$2,400 as of 2024): SPEI is structurally weighted toward B2B, payroll, and high-value transfers, not consumer micro-payments
- No zero-MDR mandate; merchant pricing varies by IFPE and transaction type
- FedACH bilateral covers the US-Mexico remittance corridor but uses ACH timing on the US side — not a real-time end-to-end corridor
PromptPay
- P2B merchant pricing is market-determined (0–1% typical) — zero cost applies to P2P only
- 90M+ registrations on a 71M population; enrollment was driven by government stimulus disbursement rather than merchant economics — high registration does not mean merchant acceptance infrastructure is universally deployed
- Integration is via a BOT-licensed PSP or bank; NITMX is the infrastructure operator and not a direct integration point for most operators
- Best cross-border connectivity in the region: live QR links with Singapore (PayNow), Malaysia (DuitNow), and Indonesia (QRIS)
PayNow
- P2P (phone/NRIC) and PayNow Corporate (UEN + API) are distinct products with different integration paths — using P2P for merchant collection flows is a common foreign-operator mistake
- No unified PayNow Corporate API: integration depends on the operator’s primary banking relationship (DBS, OCBC, or UOB), each with a different API implementation
- Aggregator path (Stripe SG, Adyen) adds 0.3–0.8% but provides unified settlement reporting and removes bank API integration overhead
- 80% of consumers and businesses in Singapore use PayNow as of 2025; FAST (the underlying settlement rail) processed SGD 662B in 2024 — not optional infrastructure for Singapore-market operators
NAPAS 247 / VietQR
- NAPAS 247 is the interbank real-time rail; VietQR is the unified QR standard layered on top — they are complementary, not competing products
- NAPAS 247 processed 8.9 billion transactions in 2024 (+33.8% YoY); fast-growing but foreign operator access requires SBV payment intermediary licence or a licensed local partner
- VNPay and MoMo are the primary local partner routes for foreign operators
- VietQR enrolled 40+ banks and e-wallets onto a common QR format — the multi-QR fragmentation problem that existed until 2022 is largely resolved
InstaPay
- PHP 50,000 (~$870 USD) per-transaction cap: transactions above this threshold must use PESONet (batch, next-day settlement) — a structural constraint for high-AOV operators
- QR Ph is the BSP-mandated national QR standard, but GCash and Maya also maintain proprietary QRs — merchants typically display multiple codes until QR Ph adoption catches up
- BSP-licensed bank or EMI required for direct access; aggregator (PayMongo, Xendit, 2C2P) is the fastest operator path to market
- GCash (94M registered users) and Maya (50M+) dominate digital payments in the Philippines — accepting InstaPay bank transfers alone does not reach the majority of the digital wallet market
DuitNow
- DuitNow AutoDebit extends the platform into recurring billing — the direct debit equivalent for scheduled collections, analogous to SEPA Direct Debit
- Best cross-border QR connectivity in ASEAN outside Singapore: live bilateral QR links with PromptPay (Thailand) and QRIS (Indonesia)
- No dedicated PaymentBrief deep-dive article exists for DuitNow operator mechanics as of mid-2026; data in this row is sourced from the PromptPay and SEA Real-Time Payments article and the Malaysia market guide
Source articles by rail
- Pix: Brazil’s PIX: What Payment Operators Entering LatAm Must Understand
- UPI: India’s UPI at Scale: Infrastructure Realities for Payment Operators
- SPEI / Mexico corridor: The US-Mexico Remittance Corridor · CoDi vs Pix
- PromptPay: PromptPay and the Rise of Real-Time Payment Rails Across Southeast Asia
- PayNow: PayNow Corporate vs PayNow: What Operators Miss About Singapore’s Rail
- NAPAS 247 / VietQR: Vietnam’s Payment Rails: VietQR, NAPAS 247, and What Operators Need to Know
- InstaPay / PESONet: InstaPay and PESONet: The Philippines’ Dual Real-Time Rail Architecture
- Full narrative comparison: Pix vs UPI vs SPEI vs PromptPay: Real-Time Rail Economics Compared
By Shaun Toh · Director, Digital Payments · Razer Subscribers get the PSP Selection RFP Kit — 60+ structured questions, evaluation scorecard, and negotiation playbook — delivered to your inbox instantly.