Kuala Lumpur, Tuesday, 11 February 2014:- The Association of Banks in Malaysia (ABM), in collaboration with its member banks, has introduced measures to make reconciliation of Interbank GIRO (IBG) fund transfers more convenient for recipients of the funds.

When the sender is making an IBG payment via internet banking or mobile banking, he must now provide adequate 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.

“With such information made available by most of our member banks, it would greatly ease the recipients of the funds when reconciling the payments received. However, the usefulness of the details would depend on the sender inputting relevant information which the recipient can easily identify,” said Chuah Mei Lin, Executive Director of ABM.

“In our communications with businesses and members of the public via public forum, road-shows and open days, we have noted their concern regarding the difficulties in identifying IBG payments received. The commercial banking industry has acted to allay their concerns, thus making IBG fund transfers even more attractive,” she added.

For more details, please refer to the communiqué on the payment reference standards which is available on ABM’s website, www.abm.org.my.

ABM and our member banks are in full support of the national agenda for the migration to electronic payment (e-payment) and would like to encourage members of the public to adopt e-payment which is a fast, affordable and convenient method of transferring funds and making payments.

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.