Boku opens Singapore innovation hub for cross-border payments

By Vriti Gothi

Boku has opened an Innovation Hub in Singapore as it seeks to develop new technologies aimed at reducing friction in cross-border payments for global merchants, reflecting broader shifts in how consumers pay and how merchants manage international money movement.

The new facility will house a dedicated team focused on building capabilities such as real-time foreign exchange, improved wallet interoperability, and pilots involving artificial intelligence and blockchain. The initiative comes as global payments volumes are projected to approach US$290 trillion by 2030, intensifying competition among payment providers to support increasingly complex, multi-market commerce.

Cross-border payments remain a persistent challenge for digital merchants, particularly as consumer preferences move away from cards toward local payment methods (LPMs) such as digital wallets and account-to-account transfers. Research cited by Boku, conducted with Juniper Research, indicates that LPMs overtook traditional card payments in 2025 and are expected to account for 59% of global e-commerce transactions by 2028. While this shift expands addressable markets for merchants, it also introduces operational and regulatory complexity across hundreds of local schemes and settlement systems.

“Cross-border payments remain one of the most persistent friction points for digital merchants operating across multiple markets,” said Yi Hahn Chin, Head of Boku’s Innovation Hub. He added that the Singapore-based team will work closely with merchants and regional partners to accelerate the development of new payment capabilities aligned with evolving market needs.

Boku’s decision to base the hub in Singapore reflects the city-state’s role as a fintech centre with a supportive regulatory environment and access to Asia-Pacific payment ecosystems that have led global adoption of mobile-first payments. Platforms such as WeChat Pay, Alipay, GCash and PayPay collectively serve billions of users and have reshaped consumer expectations around speed, convenience and local relevance.

From Singapore, the hub will collaborate with regional fintechs and merchants to design and test solutions intended to simplify cross-border acceptance and settlement. According to the company, this includes prototyping in live markets and validating products against real merchant use cases, rather than developing them in isolation.