Bank Rakyat has partnered with Mastercard to introduce the Touch Card, a payment card designed to help visually impaired users differentiate between debit, credit, and prepaid cards.
The move makes Bank Rakyat the first Islamic bank in Malaysia to adopt this design.
The Touch Card features notches cut into the short edge—rounded for debit, squared for credit, and triangular for prepaid—allowing users to distinguish and correctly position their cards by touch.
This tactile system addresses the growing challenge of flat card designs without embossed details, which can make it harder for visually impaired users to tell cards apart.
Since April 2025, the Touch Card feature has been applied to two Bank Rakyat products: the Muslimah Credit Card-i, which features a squared notch, and the Debit Card-i, with a rounded notch.
The bank collaborated with the Persatuan Orang-Orang Cacat Penglihatan Islam Malaysia (PERTIS) to understand the needs of the visually impaired community.
As part of the rollout, 30 PERTIS members received the new card along with an RM200 incentive.
The Touch Card was co-designed by Mastercard and IDEMIA, and has been endorsed by accessibility advocates including the Royal National Institute of Blind People in the UK and VISIONS/Services for the Blind and Visually Impaired in the US.
“Today, Mastercard is excited to put this simple but very meaningful design solution at the fingertips of Malaysians.
The Touch Card empowers partially sighted and blind individuals by providing an intuitive and easy way to identify and use their bank cards with just a touch, so that they can also benefit from the convenience, control and security that card payments offer,”
said Beena Pothen, Country Manager, Malaysia and Brunei, Mastercard.
“The introduction of the Touch Card reflects Bank Rakyat’s commitment to enhancing banking experiences for all Malaysians, including those with visual impairments.
Through our collaboration with PERTIS and Mastercard, we have integrated the Touch Card feature into selected card offerings to meet the specific needs of the visually impaired community, going beyond compliance to deliver solutions that genuinely improve everyday banking,”
said Ahmad Shahril Mohd Shariff, Bank Rakyat’s Chief Executive Officer.
Featured image credit: Edited from Freepik
