This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on December 18, 2019

KUALA LUMPUR: CIMB Group Holdings Bhd has launched CIMB Tap n Pay, a new mobile-based payment platform for debit card transactions.

In a statement, the banking group said mobile devices are used as a payment acceptance terminal, which it deems a viable alternative to a conventional point-of-sale (POS) terminal, particularly for micro small and medium enterprises (SMEs).

Tap n Pay is the result of CIMB’s collaboration with Payments Network Sdn Bhd (PayNet). The banking group is targeting 20,000 merchant downloads next year.

CIMB group commercial banking chief executive officer (CEO) Victor Lee said CIMB Tap n Pay is part of its drive to provide more transaction services to SMEs.

“Together with PayNet, we are pushing boundaries to enable SMEs to benefit from two established strong brands’ market expertise to support their growth. This is well-aligned with CIMB’s Forward23 growth strategy to focus on technology and data by spurring digital innovations to benefit customers,” Lee said.

PayNet group CEO Peter Schiesser said PayNet sees the potential for a significant cost reduction and improved accessibility for merchants to accept cashless payments.

“Segments such as hawkers, street vendors and night market traders can now go cashless, with just their smartphones doubling as POS terminals for customers’ debit card payments.

“The collective impact is these merchants’ pain point, associated with the cost of dedicated POS terminals, will be a thing of the past with this [new] solution,” said Schiesser.

CIMB Tap n Pay only requires a mobile device connected to a network, allowing merchants to send payment receipts via SMS or email.

With an end-to-end encryption, the transaction and customer data are secured. Merchants’ account e-statements are also available via CIMB’s portal.

The payment platform, downloadable for all android mobile devices, can be used anytime in Malaysia. Currently, it processes MyDebit transactions below RM250 without a personal identification number (PIN).

CIMB said it has plans for Tap n Pay to accept contactless transactions above RM250 with a PIN, as well as credit card and QR code-based transactions.

Boarded merchants on CIMB Tap n Pay include GTrans, powered by the Sunlight Taxi Group and AirAsia Group Bhd’s wholly-owned subsidiary Teleport Logistics.

PayNet sees Bank Negara Malaysia as its major shareholder and other major banks, including CIMB, as joint shareholders. It also operates the MyDebit national debit card scheme.

CIMB shares closed 0.76% or four sen lower at RM5.22 yesterday, with a market capitalisation of RM51.8 billion. The counter saw 9.81 million shares traded.