KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian Electronic Payment System Sdn Bhd (MEPS) and its member banks will waive the fee for its real-time Instant Transfer, previously known as Inter-bank Funds Transfer (IBFT) service, from Oct 1 to Dec 31, 2015.
In a statement yesterday, MEPS said the zero fee was applicable for transactions on the Internet and mobile banking channels of the participating banks.
However, the Instant Transfer fee at automated teller machines (ATMs) remained at 50 sen, it said. In June 2015, the interbank network provider imposed a reduction of between 50 per cent and 88 per cent from the previous IBFT fee range of between RM1 and RM4 which resulted in a standardised ceiling fee of 50 sen at ATMs, Internet and mobile banking channels.
Its group managing director, Zulkarnain Kassim, said the initiative showed that the banks’ and MEPS’ full support for Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) e-Payment adoption.
“In light of the current economic situation, it is also timely that the banks introduce the fee waiver that will benefit Malaysians in alleviating any financial difficulties,” Zulkanain said.
By 2020, BNM is targeting to increase the number of e-payment transactions per capita from 72 to 200 and reduce cheques from 177 million to 100 million per year. The 15 banks that offer Instant Transfer services via their Internet Banking are Agrobank, Affin Bank, Alliance Bank, Bank Islam, Bank Muamalat, Bank Rakyat, CIMB Bank, Citibank, Hong Leong Bank, Kuwait Finance House, Maybank, OCBC Bank, Public Bank, RHB Bank and Standard Chartered Bank. — Bernama