Kuala Lumpur, Monday, 3 March 2014:- The Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM) and its member banks ventured to East Malaysia as the last leg of its “Experience Interbank GIRO (IBG)” road-shows. Since October 2013, ABM together with Bank Negara Malaysia and the Association of Islamic Banking Institutions Malaysia (AIBIM) had conducted road-shows in major cities across the country to create awareness on and encourage members of the public and businesses to adopt electronic payment (e-payment) channels. The road-shows showcase informative speeches by bankers as well as testimonials by customers who/which have made a successful migration to e-payments, and in particular, IBG. Participating organizations which include the conventional and Islamic financial institutions as well as MyClear will be setting up booths to demonstrate and promote their e-payment products at the road-shows. In conjunction with the road-shows, selected banks will also hold “Open Day” at their participating branches in nearby cities/towns to allow customers to experience or find out more about IBG.
“ABM and our members are in full support of the national agenda for the migration to e-payment and have gone the extra mile to help customers understand and become familiar with using IBG via various outreach programmes. We are happy to see encouraging response from the attendees at these road-shows with a positive take-up rate of 60% to 70%,” said Chuah Mei Lin, Executive Director of ABM.
She added, “Our intention at these road-shows, apart from highlighting the many benefits of using e-payments, is to inform members of the public of the latest e-payment initiatives, including recent measures to make reconciliation of IBG fund transfers more convenient for recipients of the funds. When making an IBG payment via internet banking or mobile banking, the sender is now required to provide additional details relating to the fund transfer under “Recipient Reference”, which is compulsory, and “Other Payment Details”, which is optional. Such information may include the invoice, bill, insurance policy or car registration particulars and the period for which the payment relates. These details, together with the sender’s name will be shown on the online and/or hard-copy version of the recipient’s bank account statement.”
The organisers also wanted to remind members of the public of the impending imposition of the 50 sen cheque processing fee on the issuer for each cheque issued beginning 1 April 2014. This fee is in addition to the existing stamp duty of 15 sen per cheque leaf. To encourage members of the public to adopt e-payment, the fee for IBG transactions performed online via internet banking and mobile banking was reduced to a maximum fee of 10 sen effective 2 May 2013.
ABM and its members will be holding the road-show in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah on 3 March 2014 and Kuching, Sarawak on 5 March 2014 as part of its last legs of the road-shows.
For more details on the Open Days and latest e-payment initiatives, please refer to ABM’s website, www.abm.org.my. For further enquiries, please contact ABM’s hotline via ABMConnect at 1300-88-9980 from Mondays to Fridays (save for public holidays), 9.00a.m. to 5.30p.m.