02/06/2026

BIZ & FINANCE TUESDAY | JUNE 2, 2026

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Trust fuels digitalisation growth MALAYSIA’S digital payments ecosystem is scaling at an unprecedented pace, but scale alone does not define strength. In 2025, the country recorded 18.4 billion e-payment transactions, a 25% increase year-on-year, with each Malaysian carrying out an average of 538 digital transactions. DuitNow QR volumes have doubled to three billion, supported by close to three million merchant touchpoints nationwide. Building trust is becoming the next phase of Malaysia’s digital

repeatedly transmit raw information. This allows transactions to remain protected while reducing unnecessary effort for customers. “Businesses that win repeat customers will not be the ones that simply offer more payment options. They will be the ones that make every payment feel effortless, familiar, and secure, whether it happens online, in-store, or on the move. As payment acceptance becomes more software-driven, merchants have a bigger opportunity to turn payments from a back-end process into part of the customer experience,” said Eng Sheng Guan, CEO of Fiuu. For payment platforms such as Fiuu, the value lies less in the technology itself than in what it enables for merchants. Whether through tokenisation, contactless acceptance, or solutions like a virtual terminal app, the goal is the same. To help businesses reduce friction, serve customers across more touchpoints, and create payment experiences that feel secure, efficient, and dependable enough to support repeat business. As digital commerce continues to evolve across Southeast Asia, payment safety is becoming less about adding more visible layers and more about how effectively those layers are integrated into the customer journey. For businesses, this marks a broader shift in mindset. Payment innovation is no longer about adding more ways to pay. It is about making the act of paying feel so seamless that customers have one less reason not to come back. transaction itself to address the broader risks that businesses face. Many MSMEs remain underinsured, often due to the complexity or perceived disconnect between traditional insurance products and their day-to-day operations. Embedding protection directly into payment infrastructure offers a more practical approach, where coverage such as business interruption, liability and asset protection becomes part of the tools merchants already rely on. By integrating these safeguards into the payment experience, the industry can remove barriers to adoption while ensuring that businesses are better protected against unforeseen disruptions. This reflects a broader shift in fintech, where value is created not just through functionality, but through relevance and integration into real business needs. Paydibs partnered with Great Eastern General Insurance to embed business protection directly into our payment terminals. Coverage for fire and flood damage, cash-in transit loss, employer liability and business disruption now comes bundled with the terminal a merchant already uses to accept digital payments. A merchant should not have to choose between growing digitally and keeping their business safe; both should come as a given. Eighteen billion transactions in a single year is not a small number and Malaysia has proven it can achieve digital payment scale. Bank Negara Malaysia’s priorities for 2026, which focus on strengthening fraud prevention, enhancing cross-sector collaboration and ensuring inclusive adoption, reinforce the importance of trust as a foundational pillar for continued progress. In this environment, differentiation will no longer be defined by transaction volume or processing speed alone. It will be shaped by the ability to deliver systems that are resilient, transparent, and purpose-built to support businesses through both growth and uncertainty. Digitalisation accelerates when businesses have confidence in the systems they rely on— and that confidence is earned through consistent performance, clear visibility, and safeguards that provide real, meaningful protection. This article is contributed by Paydibs CEO Tee Kean Kang ( pix ).

payments journey as transaction volumes reach record highs.

While these figures reflect strong adoption, they also raise a more pressing question for the industry: whether trust is keeping pace as digital transactions become more deeply embedded in daily life. Reported fraud losses reached RM2.8 billion in 2025, underscoring the growing risks within an increasingly digital ecosystem. By the first quarter of this year alone, online fraud cases had already climbed to 12,110, with losses totalling RM573 million. While digital payments continue to scale rapidly, these figures highlight a parallel reality where confidence in the system is being tested in real time. This marks a clear inflection point, where the focus must now shift from driving adoption at scale to reinforcing assurance and trust at every transaction level. Trust in payments is often spoken about in abstract terms, but for businesses on the ground, it comes down to three fundamental elements: visibility, control, and protection. Visibility ensures that merchants know where every transaction stands at any given time, while control provides certainty over when funds are received, allowing for better cash flow management. Protection, in turn, offers reassurance that businesses are safeguarded when the unexpected occurs. When any one of these elements is compromised, trust erodes quickly, particularly for smaller businesses operating on tight margins. In practice, most payment failures do not occur at scale. They happen at the edges, where systems are fragmented, processes are unclear, and the margin for error is smallest. For an MSME, a delayed settlement or a disputed transaction is not an inconvenience; it is a disruption to daily operations. embedded in everyday life, businesses are paying closer attention to what keeps customers coming back. Across Southeast Asia, this is becoming a more urgent business priority. The region’s digital economy crossed US$300 billion (RM1.2 trillion) in gross merchandise value in 2025, showing how quickly online and digitally enabled commerce have become part of daily transactions. As that growth continues, the payment experience is no longer just back-end infrastructure. It is increasingly part of how businesses build trust, reduce friction, and encourage repeat purchases. The next phase of payment innovation will not only be about giving customers more ways to pay. It will be about making every payment moment feel fast, familiar, and secure enough for customers to return. That shift is playing out in different ways across the region, but the direction is clear. In Malaysia, e-payment transactions grew 25% to 18.4 billion in 2025, while DuitNow QR transaction volume doubled to 3 billion. In the Philippines, digital retail payments accounted for 57.4% of total transaction volume in 2024, while the number of merchants accepting QR Ph grew 148.7% year on year. In Singapore, digital payments adoption reached 92% in 2025, while digital wallets accounted for 39% of e commerce transaction value in 2024 and 29% of point-of-sale transaction value.

they pay, but they also expect the experience to feel fast, familiar, and reliable every time they return. That matters because repeat purchases are rarely shaped by product or pricing alone. They are also influenced by how dependable the transaction experience feels over time. This is where payment friction becomes more than a usability issue. Baymard Institute’s research puts average cart abandonment at 70.19%, and finds that 18% of shoppers abandon because the checkout process is too long or complicated, while 19% leave because they do not trust the site with their card details. Those figures are not Southeast Asia-specific, but the commercial lesson applies widely. Even when customer intent is strong, friction and uncertainty at the payment stage can quietly weaken conversion and retention. This is also changing how businesses think about payment safety. Traditionally, safety has often relied on visible checkpoints, additional verification layers, repeated entry of sensitive details, and steps designed to reduce exposure to fraud. These controls still matter, but they can also interrupt the flow of a transaction, especially as purchases become more frequent, more mobile, and more time sensitive. The direction of travel is towards protection that is more embedded into the transaction itself. Tokenisation is one example. By replacing sensitive payment details with secure digital representations, it reduces the need to store or infrastructure is designed to do. Direct connectivity to national payment rails, for example, is not simply a technical upgrade. It removes intermediary layers, giving businesses faster access to funds and clearer visibility over their cash flow. This is not about speed alone, but about certainty, which is what businesses ultimately depend on. Similarly, consolidating multiple payment methods into a single platform or device is not just about convenience. It reduces fragmentation, lowers operational risk and ensures that businesses are not managing multiple systems with inconsistent outcomes. Solutions such as unified terminals are designed with this in mind, enabling merchants to accept QR, cards and alternative payments within a controlled and transparent environment. These are deliberate design choices, shaped by how merchants operate rather than how payment systems are traditionally structured. For a business managing cash flow on tight margins, settlement and transaction transparency are the difference between feeling in control and feeling exposed. Trust must also extend beyond the

Taken together, these figures point to a payments environment that is more digital, more fragmented, and more experience-driven than before. Customers are no longer only choosing between cash, cards, QR codes, or wallets. They are forming expectations around how smooth, reliable, and familiar each transaction should feel. This is not only an online commerce issue. As digital payments move deeper into physical commerce, the same expectations are showing up at counters, event booths, pop-up stores, delivery points, and mobile service interactions. A customer paying in person still expects the transaction to feel immediate and secure. For smaller businesses, this creates a practical challenge. They need to offer modern digital payment experiences without adding unnecessary cost, operational complexity, or dependency on additional hardware. This is where software-based acceptance is becoming more relevant. Solutions that allow merchants to accept contactless payments through devices they already use are lowering the barrier to better payment experiences. For businesses, the value is not only convenience. It is the ability to serve customers in more places, with fewer interruptions and a payment experience that feels consistent with how people already prefer to pay. For businesses, that creates both opportunity and pressure. Customers want flexibility in how Fraud and Theft policy establish shared accountability between financial institutions and users, while infrastructure upgrades like RENTAS+ and the adoption of ISO 20022 standards strengthen transaction transparency and resilience. These are necessary foundations, but regulation alone does not build trust. Trust is built via consistent, day-to-day experiences at the merchant level. Malaysia’s 1.2 million MSMEs are at the centre of this transition. Unlike large enterprises, they do not operate with layers of financial control or dedicated risk teams. Their exposure is immediate and their tolerance for disruption is low. For these businesses, trust is not defined by policy frameworks or technical standards. It is defined by whether payments arrive as expected, whether transactions are transparent and whether going digital reduces complexity rather than adding to it. This is where the industry must move beyond enabling access and start delivering assurance.

Bank Negara Malaysia has already recognised this shift. The focus is no longer just on expanding digital payments, but on preserving trust within the ecosystem. Frameworks such as the Shared Electronic Southeast Asia’s next payment shift is about experience, not adoption AS DIGITAL commerce becomes more From an operator’s standpoint, closing this gap requires rethinking what payment