The payments space in APAC is undergoing a quiet revolution. While consumer payments have grabbed most of the headlines over the past decade, an even larger opportunity is emerging in the background: the digitization of over $50T in B2B payment flows across the region.
As someone keen to keep learning about evolving payment trends, I’ve been exploring this space more deeply—and it’s clear that the transformation of enterprise payments in APAC could unlock massive value.
What’s Driving the Shift?
Here are three drivers I found particularly compelling:
🔹 Regulatory Momentum Progressive policy moves are laying the foundation for digital B2B payment ecosystems:
India: UPI infrastructure now processing over $8T in annual B2B flows
Singapore: Project Orchid advancing CBDC use cases for cross-border trade
Australia: Nationwide e-invoicing mandates projected to digitize $130B+ in transactions
🔹 Enterprise Demand for Efficiency Businesses across APAC are actively looking to improve payment processes:
78% of CFOs cite payment automation as a top priority (McKinsey, 2023)
Commercial card penetration is still <10% in most markets
Estimated $4–6T in card-addressable B2B flows remains untapped
🔹 Emerging Market Momentum Smaller markets are moving quickly and creatively:
Vietnam: SME sector growing at 15% CAGR with over 500K businesses adopting digital payments
Philippines: 50M+ real-time transactions monthly via InstaPay
Cambodia: Bakong system facilitating $10B+ in digital transactions annually
Strategic Market Opportunities
Some markets are already shaping up as strong contenders for B2B payment innovation:
What Might Implementation Look Like?
For anyone trying to understand how this opportunity could be unlocked, here are a few themes worth tracking:
✅ Solution-Centric Design
Embed payments into ERP and supply chain platforms
Automate reconciliation and reduce manual processes
Integrate liquidity management features alongside payments
✅ Regulatory Alignment
Partner with central banks on infrastructure initiatives
Align solutions with national priorities (e.g., India’s MSME push)
Test innovations in regulatory sandboxes
✅ Value-Added Services
Embed working capital and credit tools into payment platforms
Use data analytics to optimize cash flow and supplier payments
Offer ESG-compliant tracking and reporting features
Final Thoughts: The providers that will lead this space won’t just process payments—they’ll build comprehensive financial operating systems for businesses, tailored to APAC’s unique challenges and opportunities.
I’m still learning and exploring this landscape, and I’d love to hear from others who are too. What are you seeing in the world of enterprise payments across APAC?
Private label cards are no longer confined to traditional closed-loop systems. By leveraging existing scheme rails, they significantly reduce the cost of implementation while maintaining the advantages of retailer-controlled payment solutions. This shift enables retailers to sidestep legacy closed-loop infrastructure, making private label cards more scalable and accessible. As a result, they are directly challenging traditional closed-loop providers and redefining how merchants engage with customers through proprietary payment solutions.
How Private Label Cards Work: A Deep Dive into Their Growing Popularity
In today’s competitive retail and e-commerce landscape, businesses are continuously seeking innovative ways to drive customer loyalty and boost revenue. One such tool that has gained significant traction is the private label card. These cards, often issued by retailers, offer customers exclusive benefits while providing businesses with greater control over their payment ecosystem. But how exactly do private label cards work, and why are they becoming increasingly popular?
What is a Private Label Card?
A private label card is a store-branded credit card that can only be used within a specific retailer’s network. Unlike traditional credit cards that operate on open-loop networks such as Visa, Mastercard, or Amex, private label cards function on a closed-loop system, meaning transactions are restricted to a particular brand or group of affiliated merchants.
These cards can come in different forms:
Charge Cards – Requiring full payment at the end of each billing cycle.
Revolving Credit Cards – Allowing customers to carry a balance and pay interest over time.
Prepaid or Stored Value Cards – Preloaded with funds that can be used until depleted.
How Do Private Label Cards Work?
Issuance – Retailers typically partner with financial institutions or fintech providers to issue private label cards. Some large merchants may also run their own card programs through in-house financing.
Customer Enrollment – Shoppers can apply for the card at the point of sale, online, or via mobile apps, often with minimal approval requirements compared to general-purpose credit cards.
Usage & Benefits – Once approved, cardholders can use their private label cards exclusively at the retailer’s stores (physical or digital) to make purchases and enjoy benefits such as discounts, rewards, or deferred payment options.
Billing & Payments – The retailer or financial partner manages the billing, collects payments, and may charge interest on revolving balances.
Data Insights & Customer Engagement – Retailers gain valuable transaction data that helps them tailor promotions, refine loyalty programs, and drive repeat purchases.
Why Are Private Label Cards Gaining Popularity?
Stronger Customer Loyalty – By offering special financing options, rewards, and discounts, businesses can encourage repeat purchases and deeper engagement.
Higher Spend per Customer – Studies show that customers using private label cards tend to spend more than those using regular credit or debit cards.
Better Margins for Retailers – Since private label cards operate without traditional card network fees, merchants save on interchange costs while also earning interest revenue from credit balances.
Enhanced Customer Insights – Unlike traditional bank-issued cards, retailers get full access to customer purchasing behaviors, allowing them to craft personalized offers.
Alternative to Traditional Credit – Private label cards often have more flexible approval criteria, making them accessible to a broader range of consumers, including those with limited credit history.
Disrupting Traditional Closed-Loop Providers – Private label cards are now leveraging existing scheme rails, reducing the cost of implementation and making them more scalable compared to traditional closed-loop card providers. This shift enables retailers to sidestep legacy closed-loop infrastructure while still maintaining brand control and customer engagement, effectively challenging traditional closed-loop providers in the market.
Key Players in the Private Label Card Space (APAC Region)
Several key players in the Asia-Pacific region are driving the adoption of private label cards:
AEON Credit Service (Japan, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Thailand, and Indonesia) – Offers private label and co-branded credit cards, focusing on retail, consumer finance, and installment plans.
HDFC Bank (India) – Partners with leading retail brands to offer store-branded private label credit cards with loyalty benefits.
Bank Central Asia (BCA) (Indonesia) – Provides private label and installment-based card solutions for local retailers.
UnionPay (China & Southeast Asia) – Supports private label card issuance in partnership with domestic banks and retailers.
CIMB Bank (Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines) – Works with retailers to develop private label financing and payment solutions.
JCB (Japan & APAC markets) – A dominant payment network that enables private label solutions for regional merchants.
Challenges & Considerations
While private label cards offer numerous benefits, retailers must also consider:
Credit Risk – Managing delinquencies and defaults can be challenging if customers fail to repay their balances.
Limited Acceptance – Since these cards are restricted to specific merchants, they may not be as appealing as general-purpose credit cards.
Regulatory Compliance – Financial institutions and retailers must adhere to local lending and data privacy laws when operating private label programs.
The Future of Private Label Cards
As embedded finance and loyalty-driven payments evolve, private label cards are likely to become even more sophisticated. Innovations such as Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) integrations, digital wallets, and AI-driven personalized offers will further enhance their appeal. For businesses looking to deepen customer relationships while maintaining control over their payment flows, private label cards remain a powerful tool.
The B2B payments market in APAC is set to exceed $1.1 trillion by 2025, yet FMCG and Agri-Chemical companies still struggle with fragmented supply chains, disconnected ERP systems, and manual payment flows. The result? Lost sales, inefficiencies, and untapped revenue opportunities for manufacturers, distributors, and retailers alike.
The Gaps: Why Traditional Systems Are Holding FMCG Back
📌 Data Reconciliation Issues – Purchase order mismatches, pricing discrepancies, and disputes over defective items create friction between FMCG companies and their B2B buyers.
📌 Lack of Real-Time Sales & Inventory Visibility – FMCG brands rely on outdated sales data, making inventory planning and restocking inefficient.
📌 Manual Promotion Execution – Promo tracking is still done manually (e.g., wrapping shampoo bottles together for a combo offer), limiting real-time insights and effectiveness.
📌 Cross-Border & FX Inefficiencies – Many FMCG companies operate across Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Malaysia, but FX volatility and high remittance costs slow down payments and impact working capital.
The Solution: A Closed-Loop, Data-Driven B2B Payment Ecosystem
To bridge these gaps, FMCG and Agri-Chemical firms must go beyond ERP-driven operations and leverage fintech-enabled B2B payments and embedded finance solutions.
Imagine a unified payments and data platform that:
✅ Integrates FMCG & B2B Buyer ERPs – Creates a real-time visibility layer between manufacturers, distributors, and retailers.
✅ Automates SKU-Based Promotions at POS – Instantly validates discounts, applies offers, and ensures compliance without manual intervention.
✅ Embeds A2A & Card-Based Payments – Leverages virtual cards, QR payments, and commercial payment railsto optimise cash flow and working capital.
✅ Enhances Supply Chain Finance – Provides instant, data-driven financing options for B2B buyers using transaction-level insights.
✅ Supports FX & Cross-Border Payments – Streamlines remittances, reducing settlement delays and costs for FMCG operating across Southeast Asia.
How Networks & Fintech Players Are Already Driving This Shift
Qwikcilver / Pine Labs has already built powerful closed-loop solutions:
✔ Automated SKU-Based Promotions – Plugging loyalty solutions into payment terminals to offer instant discounts at checkout.
✔ High Volume Transactions – With over USD 3 billion in annual sales processed through its platform, Qwikcilver serves more than 500 large retailers and brands across the APAC region.
✔ Customised Loyalty Solutions – From Visa and Mastercard prepaid solutions to multi-partner loyalty programs, Qwikcilver enables FMCG companies to create tailored experiences for their distributors and consumers.
✔ Enhanced Transparency and Real-Time Reporting – A central hub for distributor sales, product promotions, and inventory optimisation, which helps FMCG firms track everything from sales rep performance to outlet promotions.
Mastercard is already moving towards modernising B2B payments:
🚀 Mastercard Track & Commercial Cards – Expanding acceptance of virtual cards for B2B procurement & cross-border trade.
🚀 Collaboration with Boost (Malaysia) – Helping FMCG players digitalise last-mile distribution via embedded fintech.
🚀 Consumer Goods Team Initiative – Dedicated support for sales, finance, and supply chain optimisation.
Visa has also been a key player in enhancing B2B payments in this space:
🚀 Visa B2B Connect – A cross-border payments platform built to streamline and speed up transactions between large corporate buyers and suppliers in Southeast Asia, including FMCG brands.
🚀 Visa’s Commercial Payment Solutions – Facilitating digital B2B payments through virtual cards and digital wallets, enabling FMCG firms to optimize working capital and make better purchasing decisions in real time.
🚀 Collaboration with Payoneer – Visa’s partnership with Payoneer supports cross-border payments and streamlines transactions for FMCG and Agri-Chemical companies, simplifying FX and reducing manual efforts.
The Future: FMCG & B2B Payments Networks Must Evolve Together
The opportunity for Mastercard, Visa, and fintech players is clear: B2B payments need to move beyond transactions and become enablers of sales growth, inventory efficiency, and loyalty engagement.
The question is: Who will lead this transformation in APAC? Would love to hear thoughts from industry leaders driving B2B & FMCG payment innovation!
Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) form the backbone of Southeast Asia’s economy, contributing over 40% of GDPand accounting for more than 70% of employment in countries like Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Yet, despite their economic significance, many SMEs have historically relied on cash transactions, limiting their ability to access credit, automate operations, and scale efficiently.
The rapid adoption of digital wallets, projected to facilitate transactions worth $320 billion in Southeast Asia by 2025(Google, Temasek & Bain e-Conomy SEA report), is transforming this landscape. Wallets are not just enabling digital payments—they are serving as a launchpad for SME growth, offering financial access, automation, and enhanced customer engagement.
The Wallet Revolution in Southeast Asia
Digital wallets have gained significant traction due to high smartphone penetration, increasing digital literacy, and government-led financial inclusion initiatives. Players such as GrabPay, GoPay, OVO, ShopeePay, MoMo, TrueMoney, and GCash have seen widespread adoption, with Southeast Asia now home to over 500 million digital wallet users(Bain & Co, 2023).
For SMEs, the impact of wallets extends beyond convenience, driving meaningful improvements in financial access, transaction efficiency, and business automation.
1. Unlocking Financial Access for SMEs
Lack of access to formal credit remains a major hurdle for SMEs, with 51% of micro and small enterprises in the region unable to secure traditional bank loans (World Bank). Digital wallets are addressing this gap by:
Leveraging transaction data for alternative credit scoring, allowing previously unbanked SMEs to access microloans and BNPL financing.
Enabling embedded finance solutions, such as working capital loans and revenue-based financing, directly within wallet ecosystems.
Partnering with financial institutions to offer instant credit lines, helping businesses manage cash flow challenges.
For instance, GCash in the Philippines has launched GCredit, a lending feature that has disbursed over ₱50 billion (nearly $900 million) in loans to SMEs and individuals who previously lacked access to traditional banking services.
2. Enabling Faster and More Efficient Transactions
In a region where cash still accounts for over 50% of transactions (Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes Study, 2023), digital wallets are helping SMEs shift to cashless payments. QR code-based payments have:
Reduced checkout times by 40%, improving customer experience.
Lowered operational costs by eliminating cash-handling risks and reconciliation errors.
Indonesia’s QRIS (Quick Response Code Indonesian Standard), which allows interoperability between multiple wallets and banks, has facilitated over $15 billion in transactions as of 2023, benefiting SMEs by simplifying digital payment acceptance.
3. Integrating with Business and Loyalty Tools
Modern wallets are evolving into business enablement platforms, offering SMEs access to:
Loyalty and rewards programs, helping businesses increase repeat transactions by up to 25% (McKinsey, 2023).
Automated invoicing and settlements, reducing human errors and administrative workload.
E-commerce integrations, allowing businesses to accept seamless in-app payments on platforms like Shopee and Lazada.
A great example is ShopeePay, which provides instant cashback campaigns and in-app merchant promotions that drive both sales and brand loyalty for SMEs.
4. Driving Operational Automation
Many digital wallets now include built-in automation tools that help SMEs streamline operations:
Payroll disbursement tools, reducing manual payout times by 60%.
Supplier payment automation, ensuring on-time settlements with minimal intervention.
AI-powered financial insights, helping SMEs optimize expenses and inventory.
For instance, GrabPay’s merchant dashboard allows businesses to track sales trends, monitor cash flow, and manage multiple revenue streams—all within a single platform.
5. Expanding Market Reach
Cross-border e-commerce in Southeast Asia is growing at 30% YoY (Google, Temasek & Bain, 2023), and wallets are playing a crucial role in enabling SMEs to:
Accept payments from international customers without the complexities of FX conversion.
Leverage super apps (e.g., Grab, GoTo) to list products and reach millions of users within an integrated ecosystem.
Tap into government-backed digitalization programs that encourage cross-border trade.
Thailand’s PromptPay and Singapore’s PayNow, which recently integrated, allow SMEs to transact seamlessly across borders, reducing remittance costs and increasing transaction speed.
The Future of Wallets and SME Growth in Southeast Asia
As digital wallets continue to evolve, we can expect advancements in:
Embedded finance: More sophisticated credit models and SME insurance products.
AI-driven analytics: Predictive insights for personalized financing and marketing.
Blockchain-powered security: Enhancing fraud prevention and transaction transparency.
Governments and fintech players must collaborate to extend wallet adoption to underserved rural areas, ensuring financial inclusion at scale. The Philippines, Indonesia, and Vietnam still have over 50 million unbanked SMEs, representing a massive opportunity for wallet-driven solutions.
A Special Focus on Taiwan
While my work has primarily focused on the Southeast Asian fintech landscape, Taiwan holds a special place in my heart due to my family connections and deep affinity for the market. Taiwan’s digital economy has been growing rapidly, and its SMEs are undergoing a similar transformation as those in Southeast Asia.
Taiwan is home to over 1.5 million SMEs, which account for 98% of all businesses and contribute significantly to employment. The government has actively promoted digitalization, with initiatives like the Digital Transformation Plan for SMEs and the “Taiwan Pay” ecosystem, fostering greater adoption of e-payments.
Unlike some Southeast Asian markets, where digital wallets are primarily driven by super apps, Taiwan’s digital wallet landscape is more diversified, with key players like JKOPay, LINE Pay, and PX Pay leading the market. As of 2023, Taiwan’s mobile payments penetration rate reached nearly 60%, showing strong adoption among both consumers and businesses.
For SMEs in Taiwan, digital wallets offer key advantages:
Faster access to credit: Platforms like JKOPay offer microloans and BNPL solutions to help SMEs manage cash flow.
Integration with supply chain financing: Helping merchants streamline B2B transactions.
Government-backed digital incentives: Programs such as Triple Stimulus Vouchers, which encouraged digital spending, played a major role in shifting consumer behavior toward e-wallets.
Given my personal connection to Taiwan, I see a tremendous opportunity for digital wallets to further accelerate SME digitalization, particularly in cross-border e-commerce, as Taiwan-based businesses increasingly engage with Southeast Asian markets.
Summary:
The digital wallet revolution in Southeast Asia and Taiwan is not just about payments—it’s about enabling SMEs to automate operations, access credit, and expand their market reach. The intersection of wallets, AI, and embedded finance will define the next phase of SME digitalization, creating a more inclusive, efficient, and growth-orientedfinancial ecosystem.
Given my deep professional and personal interest in these markets, I am keen to see how digital wallets will continue to evolve and shape the future of SMEs.
