KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd (Bank Islam) targets to have 1.9 million Visa Debit cardholders by year-end.
Business development director Khairul Kamarudin said the response from the public to the bank’s Visa Debit Card, launched in March 2011, was really good.
“With the good response to this card, we can see many people migrating to online payment using the card,” he told reporters after the launch of ‘Thanks A Million Visa Debit Card-i Celebration’ yesterday.
He said the bank had breached the one million barrier with a total issuance of 1.21 million Bank Islam Visa Debit Card-i, to set a new record for debit card issuance by Islamic banks.
“Surpassing the one million card member subscription serves to further enhance our position as a leader in the syariah-compliant products and services,” he said.
Khairul said the bank was confident the figure would continue to grow further with the opening of six more bank branches by year-end.
The most popular Bank Islam products are housing loans, personal financing and corporate loans.
Meanwhile, country manager of Visa, Malaysia, Stuart Tomlinson said this achievement was a reflection of Bank Islam’s efforts in educating and promoting consumers on the advantages of debit cards as a daily payment tool for all purchases, big or small.
“Visa is pleased to share in Bank Islam’s success in advancing the growing popularity of debit cards and electronic payments in Malaysia, which is also a sign of the strong progress towards the Financial Services’ Entry Point Project 4 (EPP4), the government’s drive to migrate Malaysia to a cashless society,” said Tomlinson. — Bernama