iPay88’s Virtual Account a solution for Malaysia’s underbanked

By Digital News Asia April 2, 2018

A virtual bank account number facilitates e-commerce transactions
Comprehensive digitalisation moves the nation towards a cashless society

iPay88’s Virtual Account a solution for Malaysia’s underbanked

IPAY88 Holding Sdn Bhd (formerly known as iPay88 Sdn Bhd), an NTT Data company and a leading Malaysian-based provider of online payment solutions in ASEAN, today announced its ‘Virtual Account – a payment solution targeted at the Malaysia’s underbanked communities.

Malaysia has a total population of 31.3 million as of 2017, with about 22.6 million being adult (aged 15 and above). According to Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), 8% of this adult population is still underbanked, meaning they do not own a bank account or credit card and need to go outside of the banking system to meet their financial needs

iPay88 executive director Chan Kok Long (pix, above) says that this underbanked community creates a gap in the nation’s aspirations of becoming a cashless society.

“iPay88 has developed the Virtual Account as a solution that allows the underbanked to participate in online procurement of products and services. The Virtual Account solution ensures that the underbanked in Malaysia do not miss out on the opportunities of digitisation. No one should be left out in digital economy,” he says.

Chan says that this may also include overlooked communities who have restricted means to banking facilities such as the foreign workers, refugees or asylum seekers. “It is a very exciting opportunity and we can also make a huge impact on the lives of many people.”

Virtual Account is a simplified online payment application that enables people who do not possess a bank savings account, online banking access or credit card to still buy online. All that is required is an Internet connection to place orders online at any e-commerce website, merchant or marketplace.

To make the online payment, the underbanked customer selects the Virtual Account option on the payment page and receives a 14-digit virtual bank account number, which can be emailed to them or written down.

To complete the online purchase, the customer then uses the 14-digit virtual bank account number to deposit the cash payment at any bank branch or at any of the estimated 4,340 ATMs (of any bank) nationwide.

iPay88’s Virtual Account solution takes care of everything else – the back-end banking payment transaction validation, and confirmation of the merchant’s bank and ATM receiving the cash deposit from the customer.

Chan explains that the Virtual Account solution is equipped with proven fraud prevention system and monitoring that safeguard all transactions so that shoppers can use it without fear of fraud.