Hong Leong Bank Bhd (HLB) has formed a partnership with Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) to roll out the first ‘Project Cashless Kampung’ at Sekinchan, Selangor, the first non-urban area to be cashless enabled in an effort to provide access to financial services in non-urban areas.
This project aims to champion financial inclusion in the small town by ensuring all 24,000 Sekinchan residents have access to full-fledged banking facilities and services and empowering 800 small business owners to digitalise their businesses through the acceptance of cashless and contactless payments.
Domenic Fuda, group managing director and CEO of HLB said the partnership with PayNet to transform Sekinchan into the first cashless kampung in Malaysia, is in line with the bank’s ‘Digital at the Core’ strategy and ESG values to drive both digital and financial inclusion in the communities the Bank operates in.
“While there is a clear shift towards digital and cashless payment methods in Malaysia, there is still a lower rate of adoption in rural areas which this initiative aims to address as part of the Bank’s effort to drive financial inclusion in the country.
“We also believe that financial inclusion does not simply stop at cashless penetration and adoption. It also involves increasing access to fair banking opportunities as well as financial education for young digital natives to nurture money-and digital-smart future generations so that no one is left behind in this digital economy,” said Fuda.
Through the ‘Project Cashless Kampung’, HLB looks forward to empowering the business community across paddy and fruit farming to fisheries and tourism in capturing more opportunities to grow their business by accepting cashless payments, especially now as Malaysian consumers are increasingly preferring cashless and contactless.
The initial phase will see HLB facilitating the opening of bank accounts and debit cards issuance for the Sekinchan community, without them needing to visit a bank branch. For the business community, it will be equipping all 800 businesses with an HLB DuitNow starter kit which includes a DuitNow QR for businesses to accept contactless QR payments from mobile banking apps and eWallets, as well as the All-in-One payment terminal that accepts both card and QR payments.
The bank said it will first focus on pasar, hawker and flea market traders before equipping other local businesses in the area that are yet to be cashless enabled including schools.
Farhan Ahmad, group CEO of PayNet said: “Our Digital Payments Insights Study released earlier this year noted the urban-rural divide in cashless adoption still exists, with nearly two-thirds of Malaysians in non-urban areas still preferring cash to pay for daily expenses whereas only 36.2% in urban areas still pay cash for their daily spending. ‘
“Project Cashless Kampung’ is aimed at closing that gap by the adoption of cashless payments via DuitNow QR or with their MyDebit ATM cards. To optimize impact, we intend to take the key learnings and expand this Project to other non-urban areas.”
PayNet is the operator of DuitNow QR, the nation’s inter-operable QR standard and MyDebit ATM services.
