Myanmar (MM)
Lead Signal
Myanmar's payments regime has been baselined this cycle, and it shows a formally coherent licensing architecture operating inside a deeply distressed, increasingly politicised environment. The Central Bank of Myanmar administers a dual bank-led and non-bank mobile-financial-services licensing regime under the Financial Institutions Law of 2016 and the 2016 Mobile Financial Services Regulation. Wave Money became the first non-bank institution licensed under that regime, in August 2016, setting the precedent later followed by KBZPay, AYAPay and CBPay. Yet the same apparatus that licenses providers and mandates segregated safeguarding accounts has, since the 2021 coup, been repurposed for political-security enforcement: junta authorities ordered closure of mobile accounts lacking updated KYC data, and froze at least 721 accounts across KBZPay, WavePay, AYAPay and CBPay in May 2023 on suspicion of anti-junta financing. A parallel digital-currency fault line has also emerged. The CBM formed a Central Committee for the Issuance of a Central Bank Digital Currency under Notification 16/2025 to plan a phased digital-kyat rollout, while the opposition National Unity Government operates a rival Digital Kyat, called DMMK, on the Stellar blockchain via its NUGPay wallet, pegged to the black-market rate and reportedly moving around 2.3 trillion kyat, or roughly US$500 million, across some 38,000 accounts as of March 2025. Correspondent banking access has deteriorated sharply in parallel: Myanmar has remained on the FATF blacklist since October 2022, unchanged as of the February 2026 Plenary, and OFAC sanctioned Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank and Myanma Foreign Trade Bank in June 2023 as the regime's primary foreign-exchange conduits, leaving Myanma Economic Bank's residual network of 48 correspondent banks across 10 countries among the few remaining formal channels.
Outlook
Myanmar's payments environment is likely to stay bifurcated along the fault lines set out this cycle: a functioning bank/non-bank licensing and settlement architecture running alongside a politicised conduct-enforcement track, a junta-versus-opposition digital-currency contest, and a correspondent-banking network narrowed to a small set of residual channels. Watch points for the next cycle include further FATF Plenary treatment of Myanmar's blacklist status, the pace of the CBM's CBDC committee work under Notification 16/2025, and whether further FX-dealer or mobile-account enforcement actions extend the licence-revocation and account-freeze pattern already documented in this baseline.
Other Developments
Operational resilience is the system's most acute vulnerability. CBM-NET, the RTGS/CSD settlement platform, has run under published Business Continuity Planning guidelines since January 2016, but conflict-driven internet shutdowns -- 329 or more recorded since February 2021 -- have repeatedly disrupted deposit, withdrawal and mobile-money availability. The 2021 shutdowns alone are estimated to have cost US$2.8 billion, the largest such loss recorded globally that year, a toll compounded by March 2025 earthquake damage. Scheme compliance is comparatively settled: the Myanmar Payment Union, founded in September 2011, provides domestic ATM/POS switching alongside CBM-permitted co-badging with Visa, Mastercard, JCB and UnionPay, applying a 0.5% off-us interchange fee since 2022 plus per-transaction and weekly ATM withdrawal caps. Corridor dynamics show forced formalisation underway: a 2024 directive requiring migrant workers to remit at least 25% of foreign earnings through official channels helped push formal Thailand-Myanmar remittance flows to US$5.6 billion in 2025, up from just US$670 million in 2022. The MyanmarPay MMQR interoperability standard, built on Mojaloop and officially launched in 2025, is consolidating domestic wallet-to-bank switching alongside that shift. Consumer protection still relies on tiered KYC transaction limits -- Level-1 accounts capped at 400,000 kyat per day, Level-2 at 2,000,000 kyat -- rather than a dedicated authorised-push-payment fraud reimbursement regime, a gap set against the scale of Myanmar's border scam-compound economy, where a single Chinese-operated company at KK Park is estimated to have moved over US$100 million in cryptocurrency through Tether-based fraud schemes.
Cross-Monitor Connections
Three strands of this baseline sit outside the Monitor's payments-infrastructure remit and have been flagged to the Financial Intelligence Monitor. The NUG's DMMK stablecoin, tied to reported financing of over US$11.5 million in civil-war donations, raises sanctions-evasion questions beyond WPM's payment-instrument-trust scope. The OFAC designation of MICB and MFTB as regime foreign-exchange conduits implicates a sanctions-compliance surface broader than correspondent-banking infrastructure alone. And the exploitation of crypto and mobile-wallet rails by trafficking-linked scam compounds such as KK Park, tied to an estimated 120,000 trafficked workers per the UN Human Rights Office, is an illicit-finance question for FIM, not a WPM conclusion about the instruments themselves.
Legal accessibility by product
overall:Domains
14 regulatory modules · click to expand the full sub-briefLicensing, Authorisation & Market Access
ConfirmedMyanmar's payments market access rests on two coexisting legal instruments administered by the Central Bank of Myanmar: the Financial Institutions Law of 2016 and the CBM's 2016 Mobile Financial Services Regulation.
Conduct, Safeguarding & Promotions
HighMyanmar's mobile financial service providers must safeguard customer float through segregated trust or deposit accounts held at partner commercial banks, reconciled daily by 4pm local time, with a duty to replenish the account if the liquidity receivable falls short.
Stablecoins & Digital Money
HighThe Central Bank of Myanmar prohibits the sale, purchase, exchange or transfer of unregulated digital currencies and stablecoins under Directive 9/2020, a ban it reiterated in a 24 May 2024 public notice threatening account closure and legal action against violators.
Operational Resilience & Critical Infrastructure
HighCBM-NET, Myanmar's RTGS/CSD settlement platform, has operated under published Business Continuity Planning guidelines since it went live in January 2016.
Scheme & Network Compliance
HighMyanmar Payment Union, founded on 15 September 2011 and counting 23 member banks by 2017, operates the country's domestic card scheme, providing ATM and POS switching while the Central Bank of Myanmar permits international schemes -- Visa, Mastercard, JCB and UnionPay -- to operate domestically and co-badge with MPU.
Payment Corridor Dynamics
HighThe Thailand-Myanmar remittance corridor is subject to a forced-formalisation directive, introduced in 2024, requiring migrant workers to remit at least 25% of their foreign earnings through official banking channels.
Full per-domain detail — all 14 modules
W1aConfirmedLicensing, Authorisation & Market Access
see this theme across all jurisdictions →6 claimsMyanmar's payments licensing regime rests on the Financial Institutions Law (2016) for banks/NBFIs and the CBM's 2016 Mobile Financial Services Regulation for non-bank e-money/mobile-wallet issuers, both administered by the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM). Bank-led and non-bank MFS routes coexist, with a MMK 3 billion minimum capital bar for non-bank MFS licensees. The junta-controlled CBM continues routine licensing, capital-adequacy and FX-dealer authorisation activity, alongside periodic mass revocation of non-compliant FX/money-changer licences.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
Licensing, Authorisation & Market Access
Myanmar's payments market access rests on two coexisting legal instruments administered by the Central Bank of Myanmar: the Financial Institutions Law of 2016 and the CBM's 2016 Mobile Financial Services Regulation. Together they establish a bank-led licensing route alongside a non-bank mobile-financial-services track, the latter requiring a minimum paid-up capital of MMK 3 billion and registration as an NBFI or non-bank MFS licence holder. Wave Money became the first non-bank institution licensed under this regime in August 2016, a grant that set the precedent for mobile-network-operator and non-bank market entry later followed by KBZPay, AYAPay and CBPay. Licensing enforcement extends well beyond mobile-financial-services providers to the foreign-exchange dealer population, and it remains active: in March 2024 the CBM revoked or suspended the licences of nine foreign-currency dealer companies, following a much larger September 2023 mass revocation that affected 123 money-changer companies.
Outlook
The dual bank/non-bank licensing architecture is the structural baseline against which all other Myanmar payments activity operates, and it is unlikely to change materially in the near term given the CBM's evident capacity to keep both routes running through years of conflict. The more active variable is enforcement: the recurring pattern of authorised-dealer and money-changer licence revocations signals continued CBM appetite for tightening the foreign-exchange periphery, and further rounds of revocation are a reasonable expectation for the next cycle.
Myanmar's payments licensing regime rests on the Financial Institutions Law (2016) for banks/NBFIs and the CBM's 2016 Mobile Financial Services Regulation for non-bank e-money/mobile-wallet issuers, both administered by the Central Bank of Myanmar (CBM). Bank-led and non-bank MFS routes coexist, with a MMK 3 billion minimum capital bar for non-bank MFS licensees. The junta-controlled CBM continues routine licensing, capital-adequacy and FX-dealer authorisation activity, alongside periodic mass revocation of non-compliant FX/money-changer licences.
Evidence — 6 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- SB
- Sentinel Feed
- False
Event Findings
Sources
Financial Institutions Law - STIP | Law Detail [T1] Wave Money - Wikipedia [T3] Myanmar’s central bank revokes licenses of nine FOREX dealers in March – ENG.MIZZIMA.COM [T3]
Safeguarding of MFS customer float is mandated via segregated trust/deposit accounts at partner commercial banks with daily reconciliation duties, tiered KYC limits, and CBM suspension/revocation powers for non-compliance. Post-coup, conduct enforcement has taken on a political-security dimension, with the CBM ordering mass account closures/upgrades framed as fraud prevention but also used to monitor and disrupt suspected anti-junta financial flows.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
Conduct, Safeguarding & Promotions
Myanmar's mobile financial service providers must safeguard customer float through segregated trust or deposit accounts held at partner commercial banks, reconciled daily by 4pm local time, with a duty to replenish the account if the liquidity receivable falls short. That formal safeguarding regime sits alongside a starkly different conduct track: junta authorities have ordered the closure of mobile payment accounts, including KPay and WavePay accounts, lacking updated KYC information, and in May 2023 froze at least 721 mobile accounts across KBZPay, WavePay, AYAPay and CBPay on suspicion of anti-junta financing.
Outlook
The coexistence of a technically sound safeguarding mechanism with a politicised account-freeze power is the defining feature of Myanmar's conduct regime, and it is likely to persist as long as the post-coup security environment does. Expect further KYC-driven account closures to be framed as fraud or security enforcement rather than as conventional consumer-protection action, a distinction that matters for any assessment of provider or customer risk in this market.
Safeguarding of MFS customer float is mandated via segregated trust/deposit accounts at partner commercial banks with daily reconciliation duties, tiered KYC limits, and CBM suspension/revocation powers for non-compliance. Post-coup, conduct enforcement has taken on a political-security dimension, with the CBM ordering mass account closures/upgrades framed as fraud prevention but also used to monitor and disrupt suspected anti-junta financial flows.
Evidence — 5 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- SB
- Sentinel Feed
- False
Event Findings
Sources
Regulations on mobile financial services [T1] Myanmar shutters 700 mobile bank accounts suspected of funding anti-junta forces – Radio Free Asia [T3]
Myanmar has no licensing or legislative framework for cryptocurrency or stablecoins; the CBM maintains a blanket prohibition (Directive 9/2020, reiterated in a May 2024 public notice) enforced via account freezes and prosecutions under the AML Law, Financial Institutions Law and CBM Law. In parallel, the CBM formed a Central Committee for the Issuance of a Central Bank Digital Currency (digital kyat) in 2025, while the opposition National Unity Government operates its own de facto stablecoin/CBDC (DMMK/NUGPay) outside CBM control.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
Stablecoins & Digital Money
The Central Bank of Myanmar prohibits the sale, purchase, exchange or transfer of unregulated digital currencies and stablecoins under Directive 9/2020, a ban it reiterated in a 24 May 2024 public notice threatening account closure and legal action against violators. Alongside that blanket prohibition, the CBM formed a Central Committee for the Issuance of a Central Bank Digital Currency under Notification 16/2025, with State Administration Council approval dated 1 May 2025, tasked with researching and phasing a digital-kyat rollout rather than deploying one immediately. The opposition National Unity Government operates a rival digital-currency system entirely outside CBM control: a Digital Kyat, or DMMK, issued on the Stellar blockchain via the NUGPay wallet and pegged to the black-market kyat rate, with approximately 2.3 trillion kyat, or roughly US$500 million, transacted as of March 2025 across some 38,000 accounts, alongside a USD-pegged nUSDT token introduced in 2023.
Outlook
Myanmar's digital-money landscape is set to remain a genuine bifurcation rather than a converging market: a junta-controlled CBDC development track running in parallel with an opposition-operated stablecoin system the CBM cannot reach, both operating against a backdrop of a blanket ban on privately issued crypto and stablecoins. Watch for further CBM enforcement notices against crypto conversion and for any indication of pilot timelines emerging from the Notification 16/2025 committee's work.
Myanmar has no licensing or legislative framework for cryptocurrency or stablecoins; the CBM maintains a blanket prohibition (Directive 9/2020, reiterated in a May 2024 public notice) enforced via account freezes and prosecutions under the AML Law, Financial Institutions Law and CBM Law. In parallel, the CBM formed a Central Committee for the Issuance of a Central Bank Digital Currency (digital kyat) in 2025, while the opposition National Unity Government operates its own de facto stablecoin/CBDC (DMMK/NUGPay) outside CBM control.
Evidence — 5 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- SB
- Sentinel Feed
- False
Event Findings
Sources
Myanmar’s Central Bank Issues Further Warning against Crypto Trading - Tilleke & Gibbins [T3] Myanmar: Central Bank Establishes Digital Currency Committee - DFDL [T3] The Digital Kyat: Tracing the CBDC financing over $11.5 million in civil war donations to Myanmar’s opposition [T3]
W3HighOperational Resilience & Critical Infrastructure
see this theme across all jurisdictions →5 claimsCBM-NET (Myanmar's RTGS/CSD platform, live since January 2016) carries formal Business Continuity Planning guidelines, but the wider payments operating environment suffers acute, recurring operational-resilience stress from conflict-driven telecom infrastructure destruction and government-imposed internet shutdowns, which repeatedly disrupt banking deposit/withdrawal services and mobile-money availability.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
Operational Resilience & Critical Infrastructure
CBM-NET, Myanmar's RTGS/CSD settlement platform, has operated under published Business Continuity Planning guidelines since it went live in January 2016. That formal framework sits against a starkly different operational reality: conflict-driven internet shutdowns, 329 or more of them recorded since February 2021, have repeatedly disrupted banking deposit and withdrawal services and mobile-money availability, with the 2021 shutdowns alone estimated to have cost US$2.8 billion, the largest such economic loss recorded globally that year, a toll further compounded by damage from the March 2025 earthquake.
Outlook
Formal business-continuity planning for core settlement rails is not the binding constraint on Myanmar's payments resilience; conflict-driven connectivity disruption is, and it is likely to remain the dominant operational risk for as long as the underlying conflict continues. Expect further shutdown episodes to periodically interrupt mobile-money and banking availability regardless of the BCP framework nominally in place.
CBM-NET (Myanmar's RTGS/CSD platform, live since January 2016) carries formal Business Continuity Planning guidelines, but the wider payments operating environment suffers acute, recurring operational-resilience stress from conflict-driven telecom infrastructure destruction and government-imposed internet shutdowns, which repeatedly disrupt banking deposit/withdrawal services and mobile-money availability.
Evidence — 5 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- SB
- Sentinel Feed
- False
Event Findings
Sources
National Payment System in Myanmar | Central Bank of Myanmar [T1] Myanmar’s Internet Shutdowns: Silencing Resistance in the Battle for Connectivity | FULCRUM [T3]
The Myanmar Payment Union (MPU), founded in 2011 by state and private banks under CBM direction, is the domestic card scheme providing ATM/POS switching, with the CBM subsequently permitting international schemes (Visa, Mastercard, JCB, UnionPay) to operate domestically and co-badge with MPU. A published interchange fee structure (0.5% for off-us cash withdrawals from 2022) and standard ATM withdrawal limits exist; PCI-DSS-aligned POS acceptance is provided by acquiring banks and gateways.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
Scheme & Network Compliance
Myanmar Payment Union, founded on 15 September 2011 and counting 23 member banks by 2017, operates the country's domestic card scheme, providing ATM and POS switching while the Central Bank of Myanmar permits international schemes -- Visa, Mastercard, JCB and UnionPay -- to operate domestically and co-badge with MPU. MPU applies a 0.5% interchange fee on off-us cash withdrawals, effective from 2022, alongside a 500,000 kyat per-transaction cap and a 2,000,000 kyat weekly ATM withdrawal cap for its cardholders.
Outlook
The domestic scheme's coexistence with international networks, rather than exclusion of them, is likely to remain the stable pattern for Myanmar's card market. Watch for incremental adjustments to MPU's interchange and withdrawal-limit settings as the domestic banking system continues to manage liquidity and cash-access constraints.
The Myanmar Payment Union (MPU), founded in 2011 by state and private banks under CBM direction, is the domestic card scheme providing ATM/POS switching, with the CBM subsequently permitting international schemes (Visa, Mastercard, JCB, UnionPay) to operate domestically and co-badge with MPU. A published interchange fee structure (0.5% for off-us cash withdrawals from 2022) and standard ATM withdrawal limits exist; PCI-DSS-aligned POS acceptance is provided by acquiring banks and gateways.
Evidence — 4 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- SB
- Sentinel Feed
- False
Event Findings
Sources
National Payment System in Myanmar | Central Bank of Myanmar [T1] FAQs [T3]
The Thailand-Myanmar corridor, spanning over 2,400 km and among the 20 largest migration corridors globally, dominates Myanmar's remittance flows, historically reliant on informal hundi channels but increasingly forced into formal banking rails via a 2024 directive requiring migrant workers to remit at least 25% of foreign earnings through official channels. Domestically, the MyanmarPay MMQR national QR interoperability standard (implemented 2022, launched 2025, operated by PayPlus/MyanmarPay Co.) is unifying wallet/bank payment acceptance on Mojaloop-based infrastructure.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
Payment Corridor Dynamics
The Thailand-Myanmar remittance corridor is subject to a forced-formalisation directive, introduced in 2024, requiring migrant workers to remit at least 25% of their foreign earnings through official banking channels. Formal remittances on the corridor rose to US$5.6 billion in 2025, around 38% of Myanmar's foreign-exchange inflows, up sharply from just US$670 million in 2022. Alongside that shift, MyanmarPay MMQR has become the national QR-code interoperability standard, implemented from 2022 and officially launched in 2025, operated by PayPlus/MyanmarPay Co. as a central switch built on Mojaloop open-source software that enables interoperable payments across banks and mobile wallets.
Outlook
The forced-formalisation directive is reshaping the corridor's formal-informal balance in the junta's favour, directing foreign-exchange flow into official, junta-linked banking channels, though informal hundi-style transfer likely persists alongside the formal channel. Expect MMQR interoperability to keep consolidating domestic wallet-to-bank switching even as the corridor's cross-border dynamics remain shaped primarily by the remittance directive.
The Thailand-Myanmar corridor, spanning over 2,400 km and among the 20 largest migration corridors globally, dominates Myanmar's remittance flows, historically reliant on informal hundi channels but increasingly forced into formal banking rails via a 2024 directive requiring migrant workers to remit at least 25% of foreign earnings through official channels. Domestically, the MyanmarPay MMQR national QR interoperability standard (implemented 2022, launched 2025, operated by PayPlus/MyanmarPay Co.) is unifying wallet/bank payment acceptance on Mojaloop-based infrastructure.
Evidence — 5 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- SB
- Sentinel Feed
- False
Event Findings
Sources
Myanmar junta’s forced remittance rules pull in US$5.6 billion < Mekong Migration Network [T3] Instant Payments Myanmar: Rails, Fees, and the Lightning Network (2026) [T3]
Myanmar's banking sector remains capital-constrained and highly concentrated at the top tier, with 77% of the population unbanked. Digital payments are dominated by a handful of super-apps (KBZPay, Wave Money) and bank-linked wallets (AYAPay, CB Pay), overlaid by the CBM's interoperable MMQR standard. Post-coup political risk drove Telenor's exit from Wave Money, while Chinese fintech capital (Ant Group) has entered via minority stakes.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
Industry Structure & Commercial Dynamics
Myanmar's banking sector remains severely capital-constrained and highly concentrated, with 77% of the population unbanked -- the highest rate in the region -- according to Roland Berger's 2025 study. Ownership of the leading mobile-wallet operators has shifted sharply since the 2021 coup: Telenor Group exited its stake in Wave Money amid post-coup regulatory uncertainty, a reversal from May 2020, when Ant Financial Group had invested US$73.5 million intending a 33% stake in the company.
Outlook
The structural financial-inclusion gap continues to underpin mobile-wallet and MFS growth as the primary access channel for most of the population, a dynamic likely to persist regardless of near-term political developments. Expect continued divergence between Western-investor caution, exemplified by Telenor's exit, and sustained Chinese fintech capital interest in Myanmar's digital-payments space.
Myanmar's banking sector remains capital-constrained and highly concentrated at the top tier, with 77% of the population unbanked. Digital payments are dominated by a handful of super-apps (KBZPay, Wave Money) and bank-linked wallets (AYAPay, CB Pay), overlaid by the CBM's interoperable MMQR standard. Post-coup political risk drove Telenor's exit from Wave Money, while Chinese fintech capital (Ant Group) has entered via minority stakes.
Evidence — 4 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- SB
- Sentinel Feed
- False
Event Findings
Sources
Myanmar banking industry 2025 | Roland Berger [T3] Wave Money - Products, Competitors, Financials, Employees, Headquarters Locations [T3]
Enforcement activity centres on CBM licence revocations against non-compliant foreign-exchange dealers/money changers, criminal prosecutions of individuals for crypto-linked currency conversion under the AML and Financial Institutions Laws, and a distinct national-security enforcement track targeting mobile-payment accounts linked to anti-junta financing. Myanmar remains on the FATF blacklist (since October 2022), the most severe multilateral AML/CFT enforcement designation.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
Legal & Litigation
Myanmar remains designated on the FATF blacklist, alongside Iran and North Korea, since October 2022, a status unchanged as of the February 2026 FATF Plenary and representing the most severe multilateral AML/CFT designation available. Criminal enforcement against crypto activity is active at the individual level too: in an August 2024 case, a Yangon-based USDT trader was sentenced to 18 months' imprisonment for converting USDT to kyat via a peer-to-peer platform, with the CBM separately ordering closure of both his personal and business bank accounts.
Outlook
Blacklist status is unlikely to shift in the near term given the absence of any credible governance change, and it will continue to compound correspondent-banking de-risking pressure documented elsewhere in this baseline. Expect further individual-level criminal enforcement against crypto conversion activity, serving as a recurring signal of the CBM's determination to enforce its prohibition regime even at small transaction scale.
Enforcement activity centres on CBM licence revocations against non-compliant foreign-exchange dealers/money changers, criminal prosecutions of individuals for crypto-linked currency conversion under the AML and Financial Institutions Laws, and a distinct national-security enforcement track targeting mobile-payment accounts linked to anti-junta financing. Myanmar remains on the FATF blacklist (since October 2022), the most severe multilateral AML/CFT enforcement designation.
Evidence — 5 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- SB
- Sentinel Feed
- False
Event Findings
Sources
FATF Grey List & Blacklist Countries 2026 — Complete Updated Guide [T3] Myanmar Crypto Account Closure Penalties: What You Need to Know [T3]
Merchant acquiring in Myanmar operates under the CBM's Merchant Acquiring Service directive (Notification 7/2020), with bank acquirers (e.g. Yoma Bank, MOB, AYA) and four CBM-authorised non-bank acquirers running POS/QR acceptance alongside international gateways such as 2C2P. Merchant discount rates (MDR), Know-Your-Merchant (KYM) onboarding, and same-day/T+1 settlement cycles are standard; consumer/merchant dispute and chargeback frameworks remain thinly documented in public sources.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
Merchant Acquiring & Risk
CBM Notification 7/2020, the Merchant Acquiring Service directive, authorises merchant-acquiring services via bank acquirers -- including Yoma Bank, MOB and AYA Bank -- and four CBM-authorised non-bank institutions, Trusty, OK$, Zego Pay and Unipay, for QR and POS acceptance under the National Standard Code MMQR. At the acquirer level, Yoma Bank's SMILE POS product requires merchants to complete Merchant Discount Rate disclosure for MPU, Visa, Mastercard and QR transactions, plus Know-Your-Merchant documentation at onboarding, with settlement options of 30-minute, same-day or T+1 timing.
Outlook
The authorised-acquirer population and merchant onboarding mechanics are reasonably well documented, but the formal chargeback and merchant-dispute-resolution framework remains thinly evidenced in public sources, a gap worth monitoring as acquiring volumes grow. Expect incremental acquirer-level product refinement rather than structural change to the Notification 7/2020 authorisation regime in the near term.
Merchant acquiring in Myanmar operates under the CBM's Merchant Acquiring Service directive (Notification 7/2020), with bank acquirers (e.g. Yoma Bank, MOB, AYA) and four CBM-authorised non-bank acquirers running POS/QR acceptance alongside international gateways such as 2C2P. Merchant discount rates (MDR), Know-Your-Merchant (KYM) onboarding, and same-day/T+1 settlement cycles are standard; consumer/merchant dispute and chargeback frameworks remain thinly documented in public sources.
Evidence — 4 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- SB
- Sentinel Feed
- False
Event Findings
Sources
MMQR payment: MMQR of merchant acquiring service launched | Myanmar International TV [T3] POS Payment | Yoma Bank | Top Banks in Myanmar [T3]
Product innovation centres on the CBM's national interoperability push (MMQR/PayPlus, built on Mojaloop) and the nascent digital-kyat CBDC pilot under the newly formed Central Committee for CBDC Issuance. Historical blockchain-remittance pilots (Everex) and super-app expansion (KBZPay mini-apps) round out the innovation picture, occurring against a backdrop of sanctions, conflict, and currency instability that constrain investor-backed fintech build-out.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
Product Innovation & Market Development
The Central Bank of Myanmar is developing a phased digital-kyat rollout plan through the newly formed Central Committee for the Issuance of Central Bank Digital Currency established under Notification 16/2025, a product-development counterpart to the regulatory framing of the same committee described elsewhere in this baseline. Historically, Everex piloted a distributed-ledger cross-border remittance service in partnership with Shwe Urban and Rural Development Bank, targeting the Myanmar-Thailand migrant-worker corridor with the aim of cutting remittance fees and transfer times to under a minute, though its current operating status is unconfirmed.
Outlook
Product innovation in Myanmar's payments market remains regulator-led rather than driven by third-party fintech entrants, with the CBDC committee's phased-rollout work the most consequential pipeline item to watch. Expect continued MMQR-linked interoperability development to dominate near-term product activity, while historical blockchain-remittance pilots such as Everex's remain more illustrative of past ambition than of current market structure.
Product innovation centres on the CBM's national interoperability push (MMQR/PayPlus, built on Mojaloop) and the nascent digital-kyat CBDC pilot under the newly formed Central Committee for CBDC Issuance. Historical blockchain-remittance pilots (Everex) and super-app expansion (KBZPay mini-apps) round out the innovation picture, occurring against a backdrop of sanctions, conflict, and currency instability that constrain investor-backed fintech build-out.
Evidence — 4 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- SB
- Sentinel Feed
- False
Event Findings
Sources
Myanmar: Central Bank Establishes Digital Currency Committee - DFDL [T3] Everex to create Myanmar-Thailand blockchain payments corridor [T3]
Consumer protection is largely embedded in tiered KYC/transaction-limit rules and provider terms-of-service rather than a dedicated APP-fraud reimbursement regime. Myanmar simultaneously hosts one of the world's largest cyber-scam/pig-butchering industries operating from its Thai-border special economic zones, exploiting crypto (particularly USDT) and mobile-wallet rails to move fraud proceeds, with no formal consumer redress mechanism for victims and provider terms disclaiming liability.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
Consumer Protection & APP Fraud
Myanmar's mobile-payment consumer-protection regime substitutes tiered KYC transaction limits for a dedicated authorised-push-payment fraud reimbursement regime: Level-1 customers are capped at 400,000 kyat per day, roughly US$135, and Level-2 customers at 2,000,000 kyat per day, roughly US$670, with provider terms disclaiming liability and requiring user indemnification rather than guaranteeing reimbursement. Set against that thin consumer-protection layer is the scale of Myanmar's border scam-compound economy: a single Chinese-operated company at KK Park is estimated to have moved over US$100 million in cryptocurrency through Tether-based pig-butchering scam payments, with an estimated 120,000 people trafficked into Myanmar's scam compounds as of late 2023, per the UN Human Rights Office.
Outlook
The absence of a dedicated APP-fraud reimbursement obligation leaves Myanmar's mobile-money users structurally under-protected relative to peer markets with formal reimbursement regimes, a gap likely to persist absent new CBM rulemaking. The scam-compound economy's exploitation of crypto and wallet rails is a scale and trajectory issue that will keep drawing international scrutiny, though the illicit-finance dimension of that activity is analysed by FIM rather than carried further here.
Consumer protection is largely embedded in tiered KYC/transaction-limit rules and provider terms-of-service rather than a dedicated APP-fraud reimbursement regime. Myanmar simultaneously hosts one of the world's largest cyber-scam/pig-butchering industries operating from its Thai-border special economic zones, exploiting crypto (particularly USDT) and mobile-wallet rails to move fraud proceeds, with no formal consumer redress mechanism for victims and provider terms disclaiming liability.
Evidence — 4 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- SB
- Sentinel Feed
- False
Event Findings
Sources
Concerns over Myanmar junta mobile payment terms | Burma News International [T3] Exposing Asia’s shadow banking ecosystem: OSINT insights into Myanmar’s cyber scam economy [T3]
W11 baseline content is Sentinel.gi-fed per methodology; this collector pass did not have access to a proprietary Sentinel.gi feed export for Myanmar. Publicly available regulatory posture is carried as context only: Myanmar's AML/CFT framework rests on the Anti-Money Laundering Law (2014) and the CBM's 2017 AML/CFT regulatory and supervisory framework, and Myanmar has remained on the FATF blacklist since October 2022 -- the most severe multilateral designation, alongside Iran and North Korea.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
AML/CFT & Financial Crime
This module is ordinarily sourced from the Sentinel.gi intelligence feed; no direct Sentinel export was accessible in this collection pass, so the content below is carried as public-source AML/CFT context only, pending genuine Sentinel-fed intelligence in a subsequent cycle. Myanmar remains designated on the FATF blacklist since October 2022, unchanged as of the February 2026 Plenary, the most severe multilateral AML/CFT designation, compounding correspondent-banking de-risking documented in W12. The Central Bank of Myanmar enforces AML/CFT obligations through its 19 December 2017 AML/CFT Regulatory and Supervisory Framework, alongside the 2014 Anti-Money Laundering Law and the Financial Institutions Law.
Outlook
Genuine Sentinel-fed AML/CFT intelligence for Myanmar should be prioritised for ingestion in the next cycle, given the jurisdiction's blacklist status and its evident relevance to the correspondent-banking and scam-compound dynamics tracked elsewhere in this baseline. Until that feed is restored, this module's coverage should be read as contextual rather than as a substantive AML/CFT assessment.
W11 baseline content is Sentinel.gi-fed per methodology; this collector pass did not have access to a proprietary Sentinel.gi feed export for Myanmar. Publicly available regulatory posture is carried as context only: Myanmar's AML/CFT framework rests on the Anti-Money Laundering Law (2014) and the CBM's 2017 AML/CFT regulatory and supervisory framework, and Myanmar has remained on the FATF blacklist since October 2022 -- the most severe multilateral designation, alongside Iran and North Korea.
Evidence — 7 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- SB
- Sentinel Feed
- True
Event Findings
Sources
Is Crypto Legal in Myanmar? Regulations & Compliance in 2026 [T3]
Myanmar's correspondent banking access has deteriorated sharply since the 2021 coup and the October 2022 FATF blacklisting, compounded by targeted OFAC sanctions on the two primary state-owned FX-conduit banks (MFTB and MICB, June 2023) and broad de-risking by international correspondent banks. Remaining FX access runs through a shrinking pool of authorised-dealer private banks and the state-owned Myanma Economic Bank, which retains a limited correspondent network.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
Correspondent Banking, Settlement & Access
The bank-versus-non-bank access asymmetry is the analytical spine of Myanmar's correspondent-banking position, and it has deteriorated sharply this cycle. OFAC sanctioned Myanma Investment and Commercial Bank and Myanma Foreign Trade Bank in June 2023 for serving as the primary foreign-exchange conduits for Myanmar's military regime, a designation corroborated by the 2025 US State Department Investment Climate Statement on Burma. Myanma Economic Bank retains authorised-dealer status with an established network of 48 correspondent banks across 10 countries, one of the few remaining formal FX and correspondent channels amid broad international de-risking.
Outlook
The pool of functioning correspondent-banking access points for Myanmar counterparties is narrowing rather than stabilising, and FATF blacklist status compounds the effect of targeted OFAC sanctions on the regime's primary FX-conduit banks. Expect continued reliance on the small number of residual channels such as Myanma Economic Bank's network, with further de-risking by international correspondents a realistic possibility for the next cycle.
Myanmar's correspondent banking access has deteriorated sharply since the 2021 coup and the October 2022 FATF blacklisting, compounded by targeted OFAC sanctions on the two primary state-owned FX-conduit banks (MFTB and MICB, June 2023) and broad de-risking by international correspondent banks. Remaining FX access runs through a shrinking pool of authorised-dealer private banks and the state-owned Myanma Economic Bank, which retains a limited correspondent network.
Evidence — 4 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- SB
- Sentinel Feed
- False
Event Findings
Sources
Treasury Sanctions Burma’s Ministry of Defense and Regime-Controlled Financial Institutions | U.S. Department of the Treasury [T1] U.S. Treasury Announces Sanctions Against Two Myanmar State-Owned Banks | US ABC [T3]
W13PossibleCommercial Intelligence (M&A, Investment & Product)
see this theme across all jurisdictions →2 claimsSanctions, conflict and currency instability have severely constrained conventional M&A/investment activity in Myanmar's payments sector over the trailing 12 months; identified discrete commercial events are concentrated in regulatory-driven product initiatives (CBDC committee) and incumbent super-app marketing/product expansion rather than third-party capital transactions.
No periodic updates yet · baseline brief is current.
Read the full sub-brief
Commercial Intelligence (M&A, Investment & Product)
Two discrete commercial events register for Myanmar this cycle, both product-side rather than third-party M&A. The Central Bank of Myanmar launched a commercial product-development track for a digital-kyat CBDC via its newly formed Central Committee for the Issuance of Central Bank Digital Currency (Notification 16/2025, SAC approval 1 May 2025); amount not publicly disclosed. KBZPay ran a Thingyan 2026 marketing campaign in April 2026 rewarding merchant QR payments of 10,000 kyat or more with redeemable 'Padauk Flowers' cashback and prizes; amount not publicly disclosed. No disclosed third-party M&A or investment deal data was identified for Myanmar's payments or fintech sector in the trailing 12 months.
Outlook
Expect commercial activity to remain concentrated in regulator-led product initiatives and incumbent super-app marketing rather than third-party investment, consistent with the constrained M&A environment documented this cycle.
Sanctions, conflict and currency instability have severely constrained conventional M&A/investment activity in Myanmar's payments sector over the trailing 12 months; identified discrete commercial events are concentrated in regulatory-driven product initiatives (CBDC committee) and incumbent super-app marketing/product expansion rather than third-party capital transactions.
Evidence — 2 structured claims
Key facts
- Content Tier
- D
- Sentinel Feed
- False
Event Findings
Sources
Myanmar: Central Bank Establishes Digital Currency Committee - DFDL [T3] Digital Payment Marketing Myanmar | KBZPay Wave Money [T3]