KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 16): Malaysians are ready to adopt mobile payments with seven in ten expressing a willingness to use mobile wallets such as Samsung Pay, according to the Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes Study 2016, which was conducted by Toluna on 500 Malaysians.

In a statement today, Visa said Malaysians are also optimistic that mobile payments will replace cash and card usage one day, with half of those surveyed in Visa's Mobile Attitudes Study sharing this view. The survey was conducted by YouGov on 750 Malaysians.

Visa said Malaysia has a relatively high smartphone penetration rate, with 71% of the adult population owning at least one smartphone.

It said the Visa study also shows that 83% of Malaysians are aware of contactless payments and 34% of them have used them.

Meanwhile, Visa said 68% of Malaysians also highlighted that they would choose to use contactless payments over cash, up 34% as compared to 2015.

"Malaysians are clearly embracing mobile and contactless payments as they recognise the benefits these payment methods provide.

"We have seen tremendous uptake of Visa payWave transactions in the past year, surpassing the milestone of 1.5 million monthly Visa payWave transactions in December 2016.

"We are seeing double-digit month-on-month growth in contactless payments and remain positive that the introduction of mobile payments such as Samsung Pay and MaybankPay will continue to fuel this growth," said Visa Country Manager for Malaysia Ng Kong Boon.

Visa noted that security remains a priority for Malaysians when it comes to mobile payments, with 89% of Malaysians valuing security over convenience, while 43% of them also believe that card payment and mobile wallets are equally safe methods of payment.

"Mobile wallets such as Samsung Pay are enabled and secured using Visa's proprietary technology, Visa Token Service, also known as tokenisation. Tokenisation replaces cardholder information, such as account numbers and expiration dates, with a unique digital identifier (a 'token') that can be used for payment without exposing a cardholder's more sensitive account information, thus making it a safe and secure method of payment anytime, anywhere," said Ng.

"We are eager to accelerate growth in this segment as we move in tandem with the nation's aim of becoming a cashless society," he said.

"As more merchants introduce Visa payWave acceptance and more Visa payWave cards are issued to consumers, we are confident that this new method of payment will catch on with technology savvy Malaysians," he added.