Valyou awaits nod to offer insurance
PETALING JAYA: Remittance service provider Valyou Sdn Bhd is targeting to add personal accident insurance to its mobile wallet offering to 100,000 active users monthly.
The active users comprise migrant workers working in the heavy industries, such as construction and plantation, in Malaysia.
Valyou chief executive officer Prasanna Rao said it submitted an application to Bank Negara Malaysia in December last year and was set to partner with an insurance service provider.
“We have done a survey that involves all our users and found out that insurance product is their top priority as many are either not insured or under-insured,” he told NST Business in an interview, here, on Thursday.
“We are in the final stage of discussion with two personal accident insurance service providers to help us with this product.
“We are waiting for the central bank’s approval before it takes us a month or two to roll out the service to foreign workers working in Malaysia. We aim to launch it by year-end.”
Valyou is Malaysia’s first walletto-wallet remittance service provider which was setup in 2016 after Digi.Com Bhd parent Telenor Group bought over Malaysia-based licensed money services business, Prabhu Money Transfer Sdn Bhd.
The Valyou mobile wallet app also offers other services, such as prepaid top-up, bill payment and peer-to-peer transfer.
Prasanna said following the overwhelming response to its ewallet service, the company expected 90 to 95 per cent contribution to its overall growth to come from the segment, from 50 to 55 per cent currently.
“In the next two years, whatever the growth that we have forecast (in terms of transaction), 90 to 95 per cent growth would come from the mobile wallet. Our over-the-counter business would be more or less stable and stagnant,” he said.
Prasanna said the company aimed to expand its cash-in-cashout (CICO) service, where customers could convert physical cash to e-money to 3,000 merchants by year-end from the current 2,000 merchants.
The company will continue to focus on setting up the CICO machines in tier-2 and tier-3 cities nationwide, close to plantation area where there are not many traditional money service business operators present.
“We aim to provide convenience to our customers, the migrant workers, working in these cities. They would not have to travel 30km to transfer money, convert their physical money to e-money, pay bills or top up their phones.
“Wherever the migrants are and wherever our services are needed, we will be there,” he said.