Any member of the Singapore banking public with a bank mobile app from any of Singapore’s PayNow participating banks is allowed to begin making Singapore dollar payments to eligible merchants in Malaysia.
OCBC Bank managing director and head of global transaction banking Chong Lee Ying said the move is expected to benefit both local small businesses, visitors and business people from Singapore, with the service focusing on states such as Johor and Melaka.
“This means businesses that operate in high volumes of low-value transactions are set to benefit in Malaysia including those in retail, health and wellness, pharmacy, tuition and extra-curricular centres, food and beverages.
“For instance, Singaporeans who purchase durian from a shop in Johor and wish to make payments can do so seamlessly from their own bank account directly through the OCBC OneCollect QR without changing their currency beforehand.
“In addition, the merchants need not have a foreign currency account as they will receive their collections in ringgit,” explained Chong.
Citing data from Singapore, he said PayNow has gained tremendous traction since its launch in Singapore, and by the end of 2019 more than three million individuals and 129,000 business users had registered with transaction value exceeding S$12 bil.
“Based on statistics from Tourism Malaysia, Singaporeans made close to 11 million visits to Malaysia in 2018 and with PayNow being available across the border, it will reduce the need for them to carry ringgit notes.
“We will not charge any fees for this year and the merchants will be able to receive their settlement as early as two working days after the transaction, thus reducing currency exchange risks and currency exchange fluctuations,” Chong added.
OCBC Bank has 3,000 merchant customers in Malaysia and aims to grow this number to 10,000 by 2021. – Feb 26, 2020, Bernama