KUALA LUMPUR (March 27): Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said the monetary value of mobile banking financial transactions doubled to RM100.1 billion last year from RM50.7 billion in 2017, as the number of transactions jumped to 257.4 million from 107.7 million.

According to its Financial Stability and Payment Systems Report 2018 released today, this growth was supported by a 2.2 million increase in mobile banking service subscribers in 2018 to 6.6 million, from 2017’s 4.4 million.

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) said the monetary value of mobile banking financial transactions doubled to RM100.1 billion last year from RM50.7 billion in 2017, as the number of transactions jumped to 257.4 million from 107.7 million.

According to its Financial Stability and Payment Systems Report 2018 released yesterday, this growth was supported by a 2.2 million increase in mobile banking service subscribers in 2018 to 6.6 million, from 2017’s 4.4 million.

Non-banks made headway in the provision of mobile payments, with three out of every four non-bank e-money issuers offering mobile payment platforms, with subscriptions for non-bank mobile payment services increasing to 10.4 million in 2018, from 2017’s 0.8 million.

Notably, non-banks processed 31.1 million mobile payments worth some RM1.3 billion in 2018, compared to 2017’s one million transactions worth RM240.3 million.

While noting that the mobile payments landscape remains at “a nascent stage”, it remarked that total mobile payments for purchase transactions increased 20 times to 23.7 million transactions worth RM23.80 million, with non-banks leading the charge — constituting 88.4% of such transactions.

The bank attributed this to intensified merchant acquisition and aggressive marketing initiatives aimed at attracting new users.

The bank said as at end-2018, there were over 65,000 merchant registrations for the acceptance of mobile payments. Of that sum, more than 50% were facilitated by non-bank e-money issuers.

On the banks' side, it said only two out of 18 banks offer quick response (QR) code payments with their mobile banking services. Most banks are now focusing on completing development efforts to introduce PayNet’s upcoming inter-operable QR scheme.

Going forward, BNM predicts greater competition in the mobile payments space in the fight for more consumers and merchants.

It added that the market will need more targeted offerings such as micro-financing, micro-insurance and remittance services, with further space for strategic partnerships between banks and non-banks, to capture a broader customer base.