Author: Fintech News Malaysia

GHL announced today that they have obtained their operating licences from the respective regulators in Malaysia and Thailand to commence money lending services. The licences were issued by the Ministry of Housing and Local Government (Money Lending Licence under the Moneylenders Act 1951) and Bank of Thailand (Nano Finance Licence) for GHL’s operating units in Malaysia and Thailand respectively. These licences permits money lending services to both individuals as well as businesses. This news follows the announcement of GHL’s partnership with Splitit Payments to offer installment payments solution to GHL’s online merchants. The CEO of GHL Group, Mr. Danny Leong…

CIMB Group has entered into a partnership with Axiata Digital Capital to help 700,000 SME customers in Malaysia and Indonesia to access financing solutions. This will be done through Axiata Digital Capital’s micro lending platform, Aspirasi. Victor Lee, CEO Commercial Banking, CIMB added that through this partnership they aim to fulfill SME needs based on their different business life stages. Axiata Digital Capital’s CEO, Sheyantha Abeykoon shared that the digital financing platform, Aspirasi offers a digital loan application journey with instant underwriting and fast disbursement, offering customers an unparalleled experience from any offered in the market today. The partnership will…

Grab Malaysia unveiled a usage-based motor insurance and takaful  for e-hailing driver in Malaysia, Grab Daily Insurance (GDI). Designed in partnership with 14 leading insurers and takaful operators in the country, the innovative product offers driver an accessible, yoption to add on daily e-hailing insurance coverage from as low as RM1 per day New e-hailing regulations require drivers to purchase an e-hailing insurance/takaful, an add-on to their existing motor insurance/takaful, which may cost up to RM400-500 upfront for the year. Grab aims address this upfront burden via Grab Daily Insurance GDI is the latest product by GrabInsure, Grab Financial Group’s…

TNG Digital a Malaysian e-wallet formed as a result of a joint-venture between  Touch ‘n Go and Ant Financial Group, announced today that it has appointed Ignatius Ong as its new Chief Executive Officer (CEO). Ignatius succeeds Syahrunizam Samsudin, who will return to his role as CEO of Touch ‘n Go. A 15-year airline veteran, Ignatius comes to TNG Digital having most recently served as Group Chief Revenue Officer at Malaysia Airlines (MAS) and immediately before that as CEO of Firefly Airlines from 2011 to 2018. His prior responsibilities at the airline covered various areas of growth, revenue and sales…

DuitNow QR is established under Bank Negara Malaysia’s Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework (ICTF). ICTF mandates that PayNet, as the country’s shared payment infrastructure provider, implement an interoperable and common QR standard for Malaysia. DuitNow QR is an extension of the DuitNow service launched in December 2018, which allows Bank customers to transfer money instantly and securely on a 24/7 basis at banks’ Internet or Mobile Banking channel using only their mobile numbers With the launch of this, Malaysia has a common QR standard which will work for customers of all participating banks and e-wallets. Through the common QR standard, users…

Valyou, fintech subsidiary of Telenor group announced today that its e-wallet has integrated with Western Union to enable its customers in Malaysia to send money to Western Union agent locations across Bangladesh, Indonesia, Philippines, India, Vietnam, Myanmar, Cambodia, China and Nigeria within the app. The Valyou mobile wallet is popular in the rural areas of Malaysia, bridging services in largely underbanked and financially underserved communities. Cashing in funds is made via Valyou’s 1,500 wallet Cash In Cash Out merchant locations. “With Valyou being a leader in the International Remittance Mobile Wallet space with a large network penetrating the rural areas…

Bank Simpanan Nasional announced today its collaboration with Sarawak Multimedia Authority during the launch of Sarawak Pay, an e-wallet application geared towards serving the rural communities within Sarawak. The state government received Bank Negara Malaysia’s approval to roll-out its e-wallet payment services in 2017. Through this collaboration, Sarawakians will be able to top up their Sarawak Pay e-wallet at any of Bank Simpanan Nasional’s 424 agent banks across the state. This partnership will also enable the users to withdraw money through the agent banks as well. BSN’s agent banking network typically consist of neighbourhood shops equipped BSN’s terminals which enables…

GHL Systems Berhad announced today that will be teaming up with Splitit Payments to offer the latter’s installment solutions to 2,000 of its online merchants in Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, and Philippines. GHL is one of the top merchant acquirers in the ASEAN region, processing over AUD $350 million in total online and offline transaction value per month via its network of large and small merchants across multiple industries, with a particular strength in the travel sector. Under the Agreement, GHL merchants will be able to offer their customers Splitit’s installment payment solution to pay for online purchases with an existing…

Bank Islam announced partnership with two fintechs as part of its drive for digital transformation. The partnerships are namely with BerryPay and KiplePay, the e-wallet focused subsidiary of Green Packet Berhad. In said partnership BerryPay will help Bank Islam tap into the undeserved segment of foreign workers by providing them mobile remittance services. Whereas KiplePay will enable Bank Islam to introduce a new payment channel using QR codes, the partnership seems to be targeted towards universities and enabling payments within the e-commerce industry. KiplePay has been largely silent in the e-wallet competition recently compared to its more aggressive counterpart, with…

iMoney has launched the Bahasa Malaysia version of its free credit score tool, iMoney Credit Score. The tool which was launched in late 2018 was initially available only in English. According to their press release this free tool will offer consumers a simple snapshot of their financial standing with personalised tips on how to improve their credit health and get access to savings from credit products. “Whilst there has been significant growth in signups since we first launched iMoneyCreditScore in late 2018, we still see the opportunity and need to reach out to and encourage more Malaysians to check their…

You may remember me as the person who complained about e-wallets last year, and later, complaining again about Malaysia’s drive towards cashlessness, which will probably be emboldened by—you guessed it—e-wallets. Do I generally have a skeptical eye on this still trendy bandwagon? Perhaps. After all, this survey conducted by Nielsen shows that usage is still low here due to perception of low security (50%), concern towards overspending (34%) and low merchant acceptance (27%); the latter which should have had a higher percentage in my opinion. Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) ICTF should be active by now, supported by PayNet’s Real-Time Retail Payments (RPP) system. I am however…

Funding Societies Malaysia, the largest digital Peer-to-Peer (P2P) financing platform in the country, announced today its partnership with Lazada Malaysia to offer short-term financing, e-commerce financing, for merchants selling on Lazada platform. A reflection of Funding Societies and Lazada’s mutual efforts in empowering Malaysia’s micro, small and medium enterprises (SME) sector, the short-term financing is aimed at addressing a common need for growing businesses. The business financing offered by Funding Societies connects SMEs with investors through an online marketplace and helps merchants on Lazada platform in need of working capital to increase revenue growth, bridge any short-term liquidity gap and…

The Touch ‘n Go e-wallet has just announced a money-back guarantee, one of the first few to do so for mobile payments in Malaysia.  The money-back guarantee policy is exclusive to the e-wallet app. Through this policy, users of the e-wallet can report any unauthorised transactions and request for compensation either via the app itself or by visiting this page. According to their press release, users can report any unauthorised transaction activities within 60 days of transaction date and eligible for refunds for unauthorized transactions within 5 working days. The goal, according to Syahrunizam Samsudin, CEO of TNG Digital, is…

Razer, the gaming equipment brand turned mobile wallet has announced a partnership with Visa with the hopes of “transforming payments in the gaming industry”—specifically by incorporating Visa’s scale and reach to the Razer Pay e-wallet. Basically, Razer’s fintech arm, aptly named Razer Fintech, will be joining Visa’s fintech fast-track program, which was designed to help fintechs access the global Visa payments network. Here, Razer Fintech and Visa will develop a virtual Visa prepaid card to be embedded in the Razer Pay via mini-app, that will allow up to 60 million Razer users to make payments wherever Visa is accepted at…

Insurance and takaful aggregation business will be regulated by Bank Negara Malaysia as a new category of registered business under the Financial Services Act 2013 (FSA). According to Bank Negara Malaysia’s press statement, once this comes into effect insurance and takaful aggregators will be required to registered under the Financial Services Act to carry on their business. It further states that this includes companies under the fintech regulatory sandbox. Currently, Jinerxu (RinggitPlus) and GoBear are listed under insurance aggregation category in BNM’s sandbox. The central bank is currently seeking industry comment for its exposure draft which can be found here.…

TransferWise has successfully obtained a remittance license from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM). With this license, TransferWise will launch remittances from Malaysia in 2019. Prior to the license TransferWise customers can send money to Malaysia, but not from. With the launch of this license, TransferWise customers will soon be able to move money from Malaysia to 71 countries at current market exchange rates The license allows TransferWise customers in Malaysia access to the eKYC (electronic Know Your Customer) checks, instead of having to fulfill KYC requirements face to face. That means customers can open an account by submitting documents online via…

Bursa Malaysia, the country’s national stock exchange incorporated in 1976, just launched Bursa Anywhere, a mobile app for individual investors to access a variety of central depository services (CDS) on the fly. Bursa claims that theirs is one of the pioneering mobile depository services in Asia, second only to Taiwan. In Bursa, CDS is the digital representation of ownership and movement of securities. CDS account holders can obtain electronic securities transfer and trade settlement. The Bursa Anywhere app was designed to cater to the increasing demand for round-the-clock mobile access, and will also provide access to information, movements and trends. Envisioned…

PolicyStreet announced today that it has obtained approval from Bank Negara Malaysia to conduct financial advisory. With this approval, PolicyStreet can source, aggregate, compare, customise and finally advise consumers and businesses on the best insurance products that meet their needs. According to its press release, it has at its disposal the ability to work directly with all 47 life and general insurance and takaful providers in Malaysia. PolicyStreet’s Chief Executive Officer Lee Yen Ming commented. “We often find that insurance providers tend to have many competing products that cater to different segments of customers. For example, Insurer A might offer…

Bank Negara Malaysia will be hosting their inaugural MyFintech Week 2019, which the organisation claims to be Malaysia’s first flagship fintech event. The event will be taking place during mid-June, in Sasana Kijang, Kuala Lumpur. The event will be held in conjunction with Malaysia Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC)’s Malaysia Tech Week 2019. On top of its exhibition floor, MyFintech Week 2019 looks to bring together more than 100 influencers to take the state and speak about the world of fintech, to the theme “Shifting Tides: Future of Finance”. Some of its topics will encompass financial inclusion, digital economy, insurtech, islamic finance…

Fi Life, an insurtech startup co-founded by BFM radio founder Malek Ali and Tan Jiann Meng went live today. The birth Fi Life is a result of the pair’s recent acquisition of U For Life from German reinsurer Hannover Re and New Zealand underwriting software company, Intelligent Life. A rebrand of U For Life, the newly launched insurtech offers insurance services through its mobile and desktop site. It provides life insurance coverage of up RM 1 Million. Users with problematic medical history might still be able to get cover, subject to assessment by Fi Life’s online underwriting questionnaire.* The current…