State Bank of Vietnam holds bilateral talks with the Central Bank of Malaysia on ASEAN financial initiatives and QR retail payment connectivity

The State Bank of Vietnam reported that Deputy Governor Pham Thanh Ha, during the Vietnamese Prime Minister’s 24–28 May 2025 official visit to Malaysia and the ASEAN 46 Summits, held working talks with the Central Bank of Malaysia’s Deputy Governor Marzunisham Omar focused on regional financial cooperation and bilateral central bank collaboration. Discussions covered Malaysia’s ASEAN 2025 priorities including expanding financial access for a just transition, developing a sustainable and inclusive ASEAN capital market, and strengthening instant payment connectivity. The exchange also noted the Central Bank of Malaysia’s role as 2025 co-chair of the ASEAN+3 financial and banking cooperation process, including work on new financing modalities, moving the Chiang Mai Initiative Multilateralisation (CMIM) toward a paid-in capital model, and disaster risk financing. Bilaterally, the two central banks reviewed existing cooperation, citing three agreements and memoranda of understanding covering banking supervision, anti-money laundering, and banking cooperation, and shared updates on macroeconomic conditions, monetary policy operations, organisational streamlining, technology adoption, and digital transformation. Priorities identified for follow-up included reviewing and updating signed agreements and memoranda of understanding, exchanging experience on using information technology to improve management processes and workforce training, and studying a bilateral QR-code retail payment linkage to reduce costs and improve convenience and safety for users travelling between Vietnam and Malaysia.