Global software company, ACI Worldwide has highlighted that more than 68 million real-time payments transactions were processed in Malaysia in 2020, a surge of 864 percent compared to the 7 million in the previous year as the Covid-19 outbreak dramatically accelerated trends away from cash towards greater reliance on real-time and digital payments.
In the global report from ACI Worldwide and data analytics and consulting company, GlobalData showed that Malaysia projects a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) for real-time payments of 83.91 percent in 2020 to 2025.
Additionally, the report also pointed out that mobile wallet transaction volume rose 171 percent in 2020 in Malaysia.
Based on the report, countries like Brazil, Mexico, and Malaysia, where many people historically relied on cash, are now some of the fastest adopters of mobile wallets.
“The outbreak has cast the spotlight on the importance of digital payments and robust payment infrastructures, condensing a decade of anticipated innovation into one year and creating human behavioural changes that will not reverse as we emerge from the crisis.
Real-time payments have enabled governments, working jointly with financial institutions, to accelerate much-needed disbursements and economic stimulus payments to their citizens,” ACI Worldwide’s Chief Product Officer, Jeremy Wilmot said.
GlobalData’s Lead Analyst, Samuel Murrant has said that real-time payments are still in a nascent stage worldwide, and mostly focused on the obvious use-case of P2P payments in many countries.
“However, the outbreak has provided an opportunity to accelerate the growth path for these instruments. As consumers become used to the speed of real-time settlement for P2P payments, they will naturally move to using them for e-commerce over the relatively slower and less convenient process of using cards online.
From there, there is potential to move into in-store payments, once enough consumers recognise real-time payment brands and the user base is high enough to deliver sufficient value to merchants,” he added.
According to Bain’s and Facebook’s Riding the Digital Wave report, buying patterns of 8,600 digital consumers in six South East Asia countries over the Covid-19 outbreak saw 47 percent of consumers decrease offline purchases and 30 percent increase their online spending.
The cashless movement which saw a spike when Covid-19 struck countries and lockdowns came into effect also saw the rise of various digital payment options including the Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) service, an instalment payment solution for businesses and consumers.
