Money services business seen growing 7% this year
KUALA LUMPUR: The money services business in Malaysia is expected to see about 7% growth in transaction volume, driven mainly by wholesale currency, said The Malaysian Association of Money Services Business (MAMSB).
Its president Ramasamy K. Veeran noted that last year, the money services industry registered a growth of 14.7% in volume of money transacted at RM118.5bil, compared with RM103.3bil in the previous year.
This year, the volume of money transactions would likely increase further to about RM127bil, he said at the Money Services Business Asia-Pacific Conference 2017 yesterday.
Ramasamy said while the industry would likely see a decline in the volume of remittance, the volume for currency exchange and wholesale currency would increase, driven by the tourism industry.
He said the association had projected the volume for remittance business to fall to RM79bil this year from RM73.5bil in 2016, as foreign workers delayed sending money home due to the weakness of the ringgit.
“Some foreign workers would want to wait for a better rate before they send money back to their home countries,” Ramasamy said.
However, he said the volume for currency exchange would likely increase to about RM15bil in 2017 from RM10.6bil last year, driven by tourism industry.
The wholesale currency business, which supports the retail currency exchange business, is also expected to continue to grow.
This year, the wholesale currency business would likely grow about 40% to RM15bil, Ramasamy said.
Formed in August 2013, MAMSB now has 551 members engaged in three types of money services business – currency exchange, remittance and wholesale currency.