KUALA LUMPUR: The use of e-payment services continues to gain further traction, Bank Negara Malaysia says.
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E-payment services recorded a higher growth of 30.2 per cent to 7.2 billion transactions in 2021 from 5.5 billion in 2020 (13.5 per cent).
“The increase is almost double that recorded in the pre-pandemic period (five-year average volume and growth of e-payments for the period 2015 – 2019: 3.6 billion transactions and 16.2 per cent respectively).
“On average, a person in Malaysia made 221 e-payment transactions, up from 170 transactions in 2020,” the central bank said in its Annual Report 2021 released today.
In contrast, Bank Negara said the use of cheques had steadily declined.
The number of cheques cleared dropped to 48.3 million last year from 59.9 million in 2020.
Cash withdrawn from automated teller machines, a proxy of cash usage, recorded 779.6 million transactions valued at RM386.3 billion in 2021.
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According to Bank Negara, while the proxy of cash usage was slightly higher from 2020’s 768.7 million transactions valued at RM377.3 billion), it remained below the pre-pandemic level, reflecting the steady shift away from cash to digital payments.
It said the contactless and online payments remained as consumers’ preferred e-payment methods, as they were safer and more convenient.
“For payment at physical premises, contactless card transactions accounted for about two out of every three card transactions in 2021, up from one out of every two card transactions in 2020. In general, card transactions, both contact and contactless, registered a growth rate of 30.9 per cent in 2021.
“This is twice the five-year average pre-pandemic growth (16.4 per cent),” it added.
Bank Negara said online banking transactions registered a 41.5 per cent increase to 3.5 billion transactions (2020: 2.5 billion).
Similarly, e-wallet transactions increased 74.4 per cent to 1.1 billion transactions (2020: 0.6 billion).
“More merchants are also accepting e-payments. The total number of merchant registrations for DuitNow QR service increased by 59.4 per cent to 1.1 million as at the end of 2021, from 0.7 million merchant registrations at the end of 2020,” it added.-NST