Digital Payments & Fintech · Brunei
Fintech & digital payments rules in Brunei (2026)
Brunei shaded by its digital payments & fintech status
Brunei has an in-force, dedicated payments regime administered by the Brunei Darussalam Central Bank (BDCB). Companies operating payment systems or offering payment services/instruments must obtain BDCB approval under Notice No. PSO/N-1/2020/1 (issued under s.54(1) of the BDCB Order, 2010), with defined capital and security requirements, while money-remittance and money-changing businesses are separately licensed. Instant payments are live via the national 'tarus' system, but consumer-credit products like BNPL are not yet covered by a dedicated framework.
Key points
BDCB undertakes approval, oversight and supervision of payment systems, payment service providers and payment instruments under s.54(1) of the BDCB Order, 2010, operationalised through Notice No. PSO/N-1/2020/1 on Requirements for Payment Systems.
Operating a payment system without BDCB approval is unlawful and penalised. Payment system operators must have a place of business/registered office in Brunei, base capital of BND100,000, and lodge a bankers' guarantee of at least BND50,000 before commencing business.
BDCB separately licenses, supervises and regulates money services businesses (money remittance and money changing) under its own licensing criteria, and publishes a public list of licensees.
BDCB operates the National Payment and Settlement Systems (RTGS, ACH, CSD). 'tarus', Brunei's first instant-payment system, is run by National Digital Payments Network Sdn Bhd (ndpx) as a BDCB-Approved Payment System Operator, enabling instant inter-bank/e-wallet transfers (Phase 1 from Q4 2024).
BDCB issued a Notice on Adoption of a National QR Code Standard to govern QR payments, with cross-border QR interoperability (ASEAN QR) being pursued via the Digital Payment Hub.
A FinTech Regulatory Sandbox has operated since 27 February 2017 for supervised testing. However, there is no dedicated in-force BNPL/consumer-credit framework (Brunei is described as still developing one), and open-banking-style access is emerging only through the Digital Payment Hub's single-connection model rather than a statutory open-banking regime.
Brunei - other topics
Last verified 5/25/2026 · Orientation, not legal advice - verify against the primary sources linked above. Explore the full world map →