Huawei Pay arrives in Malaysia in partnership with UnionPay and ICBC

• ICBC UnionPay Credit Cardholders will be among first in Malaysia to access this
• Users can make payment at 20 mil payment terminals with UnionPay QuickPass logo

Huawei Pay, the mobile payment tool that is part of Huawei Mobile Services, has finally arrived in Malaysia. This is done through a partnership with UnionPay International and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC).

First introduced in August 2016 in China as a mobile payment service rooted on Huawei Wallet, Huawei Pay supports near-field communication (NFC) payments in retail stores. Users can enable Huawei Pay by adding their ICBC UnionPay Credit Cards to the Huawei Wallet app and transact by tapping their Huawei smartphones to a supported payment terminal.

Huawei Pay is brought to Malaysian shores via ICBC (Malaysia) Bhd, teaming up with Huawei and UnionPay International, making it the first financial institution in Malaysia to support the payment channel. This follows earlier implementation of the service in Hong Kong, Macau, Singapore and Thailand.

Via the partnership, ICBC UnionPay Credit Cardholders will be among the first in Malaysia to experience this cashless transaction service via NFC-supported Huawei devices. Huawei Pay works without the need to unlock a phone, turning on the application or even connect to the internet. All that is needed is a fingerprint authentication.

Huawei Pay users are able to make payment at over 20 million payment terminals with UnionPay QuickPass logo across 51 countries and regions around the world. As of now, there are more than 30 Huawei smartphones equipped with Huawei Pay.

Secure, easy payment

As for security, Huawei Pay comes equipped with several safety features, one of them being a device-specific number (known as a token) that is used instead of a bank card number when handling payments. On top of that, every transaction has to be authenticated with either the user’s fingerprint or passcode.

Huawei Pay doesn’t keep transaction information that can be traced back to the user. When a card is added to Huawei Pay, a token is encrypted and stored on the device’s security chipset instead of the card number.

The security chipset provides a completely isolated running space for sensitive data to avoid malicious behaviour that may occur in the non-isolated space. In other words, a user’s bank card number is not stored on their device or on HUAWEI Pay servers and is not shared with merchants.

From 12 December 2020 until 12 March 2021, all ICBC UnionPay Credit Cardholders who register their cards with Huawei Pay can enjoy up to 50% cashback for every transaction with a minimum spending of RM20.

In Malaysia, Huawei Pay users can access cashless payments at the merchants displayed in the accompanying table (top right), with more to come.