How do people in Brunei pay online?
Nearly everyone is online. DataReportal counts 463,000 internet users in late 2025, 99.0% of the population, and 554,000 mobile connections. Cards are the established way to pay online stores, since bank-to-bank instant payments only arrived in 2025. Alongside Visa and Mastercard, Baiduri Bank’s debit cards run on UnionPay, which also powers Baiduri QPay, a QR payment feature in its b.Digital app.
Instant payments arrived in 2025. tarus is Brunei’s first instant payment system, letting people send money between banks and e-wallets using only a phone number. It is run by National Digital Payments Network Sdn Bhd (ndpx), set up in 2022 by Darussalam Assets, Baiduri Bank, Bank Islam Brunei Darussalam and Perbadanan Tabung Amanah Islam Brunei, and approved by the Brunei Darussalam Central Bank (BDCB) as a payment system operator. tarus is not an app of its own: it works inside existing banking and wallet apps, starting with BIBD At-Tamwil’s Olive, Datastream Digital’s MyDST, Perbadanan Tabung Amanah Islam Brunei’s TAIBVX, Progresif’s Ding! and BEEP Solutions.
QR is the next step. In a parliamentary answer on 14 March 2026, the Minister of Finance and Economy II said tarusQR payments launched in February 2026 and that tarus had recorded more than 20,000 transactions worth BND 2.4 million since its launch. Google Pay is available for online payments in Brunei; Brunei is not on Apple’s list of Apple Pay countries.
What rules shape online payments in Brunei?
There is no VAT. PwC notes that Brunei does not impose VAT or sales tax. Imported goods can still be subject to customs import duty and excise duty, with no duty charged when the total would be under BND 1.
QR codes must follow one national standard. BDCB Notice No. TRS/N-1/2025/1, issued on 10 March 2025, requires banks and payment system operators to adopt the National QR Code Standard for all QR payments and to have their merchants display compliant codes. By 1 January 2027, any QR code that does not comply, including proprietary codes, must be disabled and rejected by apps and terminals.
Personal data has a new law. The Personal Data Protection Order, 2025 was enacted on 8 January 2025, and most of its substantive provisions commence on 1 January 2026. DLA Piper expects transfers abroad to need comparable protection, typically by contract, and breaches of significant harm or scale to be notified to the authority within three calendar days. Financial institutions already report certain cyber incidents to BDCB within two hours.
How would Omno route payments in Brunei?
A merchant would connect once and set routing rules per method, currency and customer group. In Brunei:
- Card pay-ins would follow rules by BIN, currency and amount, with cascading: if a provider is unavailable or rejects the request, the payment moves to the next provider in the rule until one accepts.
- Instant transfers and tarusQR could be offered through a local provider connected to tarus, with the order pending until the provider confirms.
- Customer groups could see different methods, for example saved cards and Google Pay for returning customers and QR for shoppers who prefer their banking app.
Webhooks would report the final status of every payment, and the routing-decision log would show which provider handled each payment and why.
What should merchants plan for?
Plan for cards first, including UnionPay. Some local debit cards run on UnionPay rather than Visa or Mastercard, so check that your providers accept it.
Plan for the national QR standard. If you show QR codes to shoppers in Brunei, they must follow the national standard, and non-compliant codes stop working by 1 January 2027.
Plan for data protection. Review consent, transfers abroad and breach handling against the Personal Data Protection Order, 2025.