The cards were also widely accepted by retailers, spurred by the addition of new merchants in the ‘everyday’ segment, such as supermarkets, cafes and fast food chains, pharmacies, cinemas and department stores.
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysians conducted more than one million Visa payWave contactless transactions in November 2016, which is more than 10 times the transaction recorded a year ago.
Visa Malaysia Country Manager Ng Kong Boon believed this growth was the result of increased issuance of Visa payWave cards by banks.
The cards were also widely accepted by retailers, spurred by the addition of new merchants in the ‘everyday’ segment, such as supermarkets, cafes and fast food chains, pharmacies, cinemas and department stores.
There are currently more than 15 issuers who have issued Visa payWave cards in Malaysia, said Visa Malaysia in a statement today.
“By surpassing the one million transaction milestone, it is clear that Malaysians are embracing Visa payWave as a faster, more convenient and secured payment method,” said Ng.
To date, there are close to half a million Visa payWave cards actively being used in Malaysia and transaction volume was experiencing strong double-digit month-on-month growth.
Supermarkets are the leading retail category for contactless payments, where contactless transactions make up more than half of Visa’s total transactions, followed by department stores and restaurants.
“With strong support from the industry, an increase in the number of Visa payWave cards issued and greater acceptance, Visa payWave is providing consumers in Malaysia with a more convenient payment option than cash.
“This upward trend will continue to gain momentum as we expand Visa payWave acceptance to more merchant categories,” said Ng.
Visa payWave is Visa’s contactless payment technology based on Europay, Mastercard and Visa chip.
Cardholders can just wave their payment cards against the contactless reader and within a few seconds, payment is completed and there is no need to sign or key in the personal identification number for purchases under the predetermined transaction limit of RM250. — Bernama