KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) today launched its latest Tap2Phone payment solution for small businesses and is aiming over 10,000 device acceptance points within the next 12 months, says senior executive vice president Datuk Hamirullah Boorhan.

According to him, the payment solution will add an additional RM350 million in the value of merchants transactions, on top of the RM60 billion in current transactions.

“We believe this new service will help to increase the use of cashless payments technology by businesses, which could further lower the infrastructure cost for merchants and support the growing demand of electronic payments in the country,” he told reporters during the launching ceremony of the payment solution today.

The Tap2Phone is supported by the latest Android-based smartphones equipped with near-field communication and trusted execution environment technologies, to facilitate credit, debit and prepaid card payments.

With a minimum fee of RM5 per month, the payment solution enables small businesses to accept card payments from customers via the app on their mobile phones, without the need for a point-of-sale terminal.

“The Tap2Phone service accepts all contactless payments for transactions of RM250 and below,” he said, adding that the payment solution, which saw Maybank partnering Visa, is the first in Southeast Asia.

Meanwhile, Visa Country Manager Ng Kong Boon said the global payment technology company saw huge opportunities for cash displacement amongst small businesses and merchants.

“Small and medium enterprises contribute almost 40 per cent of Malaysia’s gross domestic product and business transactions today are still mostly on cash.

“Contactless transactions in Malaysia are becoming increasingly popular, with four out of ten Visa transactions being contactless. Given Malaysians are extremely familiar with using contactless payments, we believe both merchants and consumers will adopt this low and simple solution.

“This will help accelerate the speed and efficiency of digital payments acceptance in the country and promote Malaysia to be more cashless country, aligned with Bank Negara’s vision,” he added. - Bernama