KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 20): London headquartered digital money transfer company WorldRemit has launched in Malaysia.

In a statement today, WorldRemit said this follows the company’s acceptance as one of only four initial entrants into Bank Negara’s Financial Technology Regulatory Sandbox in June - and the appointment of Ridzuan Aziz, a Malaysian with experience in compliance advisory and fintech, as WorldRemit’s Malaysia Country Director.

WorldRemit said the new service will enable migrants in Malaysia to transfer money to over 140 countries as easily as sending an instant message, using the WorldRemit app or website.

It said this digital, mobile-first model significantly improves security and compliance standards.

It also eliminates the need for the sender to visit a bricks and mortar agent, which can be inconvenient and time consuming, said the company.

The move sees WorldRemit expanding its presence in Asia significantly to include Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong and Japan as send countries.

The company said it has seen remarkable growth across APAC, which now accounts for almost 25% of all transactions sent by WorldRemit globally.

WorldRemit said that according to the United Nations, the most dynamic growth in remittances over the past decade has been in Asia, which now receives 55% of the total.

It said remittances sent from Malaysia play an important role in other regional economies – just under US$6 billion was sent in 2015, according to the World Bank.

Key recipients include the Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Indonesia, it said.

Michael Liu, APAC Director at WorldRemit said any international financial technology business wanting to achieve a real business presence in Asia Pacific needs to be in Malaysia.

“Malaysia has a strong economy and a flourishing fintech community.

“The growing recognition of the importance of innovation, through developments like the country’s new regulatory Sandbox and the Digital Free Trade Zone, signifies greater government policy support for businesses like ours,” said Liu.

Meanwhile, WorldRemit country director for Malaysia, Ridzuan added the company looks forward to offering our services to Malaysians, further supporting the move from archaic offline remittances to safer, faster and lower cost online transfer methods.

Last month WorldRemit announced a global integration with Google’s Android Pay, followed by a partnership with Huawei’s mobile money platform across Africa.

The company currently handles 74% of all international remittances sent from money transfer operators to mobile money accounts, and is connected to over a fifth of all mobile money accounts globally.

Every month WorldRemit users send 700,000 transfers to 140 receiving destinations.