Mobile Payment systems in Malaysia: Its potentials and consumers’ adoption strategies.

There is a tremendous potential for mobile telecommunication networks to become an important electronic payment channel in our country considering that 88 percent of the Malaysian population are subscribing to mobile phone services.

According to Bank Negara Malaysia Governor Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz, the high penetration rate affirmed mobile phone networks as an increasingly popular channel for Malaysians to perform a plethora of activities beyond voice communication, encompassing all forms of digital communication, commerce, banking and payments.

With 25 million mobile phone subscribers in Malaysia, Zeti said there were immense opportunities to leverage on mobile phones to accelerate the migration to electronic payments, to widen the reach and appeal of electronic payment services, and to deliver innovative mobile payment products that offer speed and convenience at minimal cost for the public.There are also opportunities to enable the provision of efficient and cost-effective method of delivering financial services even in the remote areas, she said.
Tan Sri Dr Zeti Akhtar Aziz pointed out that industry has to respond rapidly to address the need for interoperability and collaborate in areas such as developing a common infrastructure, common payment messaging format as well as common security and authentication standards, to promote the significant use of the mobile phone for financial services.A shared integrated network with common security standard and common messaging standards would make it easier, more cost-effective and more convenient for consumers, merchants and service providers to execute and receive payments, thereby increasing the attractiveness of the mobile network as a payment channel, she added.

Furthermore, mobile payment is safe, secure and convenient. It allows everyone to pay to anyone, at anytime from anywhere with just one SMS. It also allows one to receive money from anyone, from anywhere, at anytime. Mobile payments are including credit card bills, and your loan repayments from home.

And for merchants, business can be done anywhere such as conduct billing. There will be increased business opportunities for merchants as remote mobile payment can be done easily with the lower transaction and maintenance cost.

In Malaysia there are several companies that already launched mobile payment systems such as Redtone, Maxis, Digi, Maybank, Hong Leong Bank, Mobile Money International Sdn Bhd, and mobileExec Sdn Bhd.