Bank Muamalat launches DuitNow QR

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20  -- Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd’s customers and merchants can now use the DuitNow QR payments option, a move to comprehensively undertake digital transformation and ensuring the best services for its retail and corporate customers.

“Bank Muamalat is the first Islamic bank to introduce dynamic and static QR Payment capabilities with a distinctive merchant application,” its chief executive officer, Khairul Kamarudin said.

DuitNow QR was created pursuant to Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) Interoperable Credit Transfer Framework (ICTF) where Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) is tasked with establishing the national QR standard to ensure interoperability between licensed e-wallets and banks.

“The DuitNow QR ecosystem continues to grow with the entry of Bank Muamalat with its existing base of 3,000 merchants,” PayNet group chief executive officer Peter Schiesser said in a statement.

He said once all parties are interconnected, 22 million bank customers and millions of e-wallet users in Malaysia will be able to make DuitNow QR payments at Bank Muamalat’s merchants, while the bank’s retail customers will be able to make DuitNow QR payments at merchants of all participating banks and e-Wallets.

Previously, Bank Muamalat launched e-Derma via its own QR solution for donations to mosques back in mid-2018 beginning with Masjid Jamek in the capital. Today, e-Derma expanded to almost 600 mosques nationwide, accounting for 20 per cent of Bank Muamalat’s 3,000-strong QR merchant base that will be progressively migrating over to the DuitNow QR standard.

Bank Muamalat’s latest offering is e-wakaf via QR launched in September 2019 to provide convenience for those intending to do charity and conduct waqaf (endowment) for the needy.

This is through cash waqaf management collaboration between Bank Muamalat with four states, namely Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, Kelantan and Kedah.

-- BERNAMA