KUALA LUMPUR: Electronic payment specialist ManagePay Systems Bhd aims to launch its e-money business by year end and will tap into the small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) market with its new business line to boost earnings.

“With this new e-money business, we are transforming our company from being technology-based to becoming a financial services e-solution company,” ManagePay managing director and chief executive officer Chew Chee Seng told reporters after the group’s extraordinary general meeting (EGM) yesterday.

Chew said getting the SME segment  to adopt the use of e-money is in itself a niche business, given that no other company has yet to do it.

The group obtained approval from Bank Negara Malaysia on Feb 18 to issue e-money via its proposed online wallet (MPAY Balance), accessible through the Internet, and prepaid card (MPAY Mastercard) for its MPAY Issuer Project. The user of e-money can make payments for the purchase of goods and services to merchants who accept e-money. ManagePay will then redeem the e-money from the merchants with traditional money.

Its previous filing said that MPAY Balance and MPAY Mastercard would provide a respective wallet limit of RM10,000 per account holder and that it would start issuing MPAY Balance and MPAY Mastercard within one year from the date of Bank Negara’s letter.

According to the group’s circular to shareholders, the MPAY Issuer Project is expected to provide a platform for the group to expand internationally by entering into strategic partnerships with other service providers in the region for the issuance of MPAY Balance and MPAY Mastercard. Meanwhile, Chew said the group has started the promotion of its third party acquirer (TPA) services in Myanmar and Singapore, and is currently in negotiations with a few potential partners to expand its TPA services in Cambodia, Indonesia, Thailand and the Philippines.

Managepay received its shareholders’ approval at the EGM to implement a private placement of new shares, which will constitute up to 30% of the group’s issued share capital.

This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on July 15, 2015.