Visa open to tie-ups with e-wallet players
KUALA LUMPUR: The congested e-wallet sector in Malaysia offers many opportunities for growth, said payments technology company Visa International (Asia Pacific).
Visa country manager for Malaysia Ng Kong Boon said Visa Malaysia was open to opportunities to collaborate with e-wallet operators, e-marketplaces and financial technology firms.
“I believe there are more than 40 e-wallet players in Malaysia. Some of the better-known ones are GrabPay, WeChat Pay, Boost, Fave, Samsung Pay, Lazada wallet and BigPay,” he said in an interview recently.
Ng said Visa viewed these firms as complementary to its business.
“At the end of the day, it is a volume game. The more transactional volume we have in terms of digital payment, whether it is from e-wallets, e-marketplaces or debit and credit cards, the better it is for us.”
Ng said the growth of debit cards in its portfolio had outpaced that of credit cards.
“Through our collaborations with banks in Malaysia, we have millions of cards in circulation.”
He said banks were tightening on credit cards to maintain their non-performing loan segment.
In fact, debit card spending is 30 per cent higher than that of credit cards.
On spending habits, Ng sees growth in contactless payments as well as cross-border transactions.
For the 12 months ended June 30 last year, Visa had transacted US$11.2 trillion (RM46.6 trillion) in value in more than 200 countries.