Cambodia's cross-border payment stack deepens as Mastercard Move and Singapore KHQR go live in parallel

Cambodia's March-April 2026 cross-border payment launches knit together Bakong/KHQR, Mastercard Move, and merchant-side riel settlement into a more credible but still fragmented corridor stack.

The April 1 ACLEDA--Mastercard Move launch adds a non-Bakong account-based payout rail alongside Cambodia's existing QR and correspondent channels. Public evidence points first to outward B2B and B2P transfers from ACLEDA-linked company accounts across 42 destinations, with instant or near real-time delivery depending on corridor.

The March 30 / April 1 Singapore development is not a PayNow link. It is a Bakong--KHQR / RoamQR--SGQR interoperability stack involving ACLEDA, Liquid Group, UOB, DBS, and at least one additional Cambodian settlement bank, Phillip Bank Cambodia, with merchant-side receipt in Khmer riel.

Taken together, the signals increase Cambodia's corridor credibility but do not collapse the need for orchestration. QR traveler spend, Mastercard Move payouts, remittance networks, SWIFT, and cash-out infrastructure still create a multi-rail routing, reconciliation and compliance problem.

Within forty-eight hours, Cambodia added a Mastercard Move disbursement rail, completed the Singapore QR link on the Cambodia-merchant side, and operationalized Khmer riel acceptance from Singapore apps. The result is a more credible cross-border stack built on separate rails with different currency and settlement mechanics.