News & Reviews:   e-wallet

A few years ago, e-wallets were seen as a novelty. Nowadays, many Malaysians in urban areas use them regularly. They're still not commonly used by those who live in rural areas. But the government wants to push more people in those areas to use cashless payments.

Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) School of Business and Economic Assoc Prof Dr Anuar Shah Bali Mahomed has lauded the recently launched Malaysia Digital initiative for its ability to reduce corruption. Specifically, the initiative’s comprehensive implementation of a cashless system will reduce occurrences of corruption as bribes are usually made in cash to avoid being traced.

The Ministry of Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs (KPDNHEP) has revealed that traders are now more welcoming of e-wallets and cashless transactions throughout the country. Its deputy minister, Datuk Rosol Wahid in a statement yesterday shared that a total of 3919 new traders are actively using these cashless transactions nationwide as payment methods.

If you’ve ever visited the historic city of Melaka, then you’ve definitely seen one of those colourful trishaw rides on the road. Well, the next time you visit Melaka and want to take a trishaw ride, you can actually now pay using Touch ‘n Go e-wallet!

The Finance Ministry (MOF) in a statement yesterday announced that around 2 million Malaysian youths will receive an RM150 e-wallet credit starting this mid-April. Part of the government’s ePemula scheme, those that are eligible include youths aged 18 to 20 as well as full-time students in higher learning institutions.

Furthermore, those eligible would get to enjoy the benefit through one of four e-wallet providers, which are BigPay, GrabPay, ShopeePay and Touch ’n Go. MOF said that the four e-wallet service providers have a network of 1.2 million retailers in Malaysia.

Many of you may have heard of it by now, but if you didn't, the government is launching a new programme called e-Pemula. The plan is to distribute a total of RM300 million to Malaysians in the form of e-wallet credits. Of course, there's a stipulation on who gets to benefit from this.

Recently, Menteri Besar Selangor Inc (MBI Selangor) has made an investment agreement with Wavpay Fintech Holdings regarding the e-wallet Super App Selangor. This business initiative will see WavPay collaborating with Selangor E-Wallet Sdn Bhd to develop the e-wallet app.

Setel has been around in Malaysia for quite some time now and just recently, the company just announced a new Setel Share feature. It is the first e-wallet sharing feature in Malaysia that allows motorists to pay for fuel via the Setel app without being at any Petronas stations.

The movement control order (MCO) stops us from visiting relatives this year, but it doesn't prevent you from sending Ang Pows. Yesterday, Maybank announced that you can send them via its MAE app. Today, Boost confirmed that its app will let you do the same.

Malaysians aged between 18 and 20 years old, will be eligible for an RM50 e-wallet credit in order to promote cashless transactions. While not much is known in regards to which exact platform will be giving out the aforementioned credit, we do know that it will most likely be platforms such as Grab, Touch ‘n Go eWallet, Boost, and potentially more.