8.44 Billion Transactions Processed in 2025 as Digital Payments Become Malaysians’ Preferred Way to Pay

KUALA LUMPUR, 20 April 2026 –Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) processed 8.44 billion digital payment transactions in 2025, reflecting how digital payments are increasingly the preferred payment method across Malaysia, driven by continued adoption across banks, non-banks participants, businesses and consumers.

These transactions span everyday usage across retail, transportation, peer-to-peer transfers and small businesses, highlighting how digital payments are integrated into daily life.

This growth aligns with Malaysia’s broader digital payments agenda, as outlined by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) in its Financial Sector Blueprint 2022–2026 and reinforced in its 2025 Annual Report, which emphasises inclusive access, safe adoption and the development of a reliable and efficient national payments infrastructure.

Praveen Rajan, Chief Executive Officer of PayNet, said, “The continued growth in digital payments reflects a broader shift in how Malaysians move and manage money in their daily lives. Digital payments are becoming the preferred payment method across consumers, businesses and public services, enabled by continued innovation and collaboration across banks, non-banks participants, merchants and the government”

As adoption scales, the priority is to ensure the ecosystem remains reliable, secure and accessible at the national level. PayNet remains committed to supporting the industry by strengthening the infrastructure that underpins this growth.”

Expanding Participation and Access

Growth in 2025 was driven by increased participation across the ecosystem, as banks and non-banks participants expanded access for consumers and merchants. Bank transaction volumes grew by 30.69% and non-bank transactions recorded 71.7% growth, indicating a more diversified and inclusive payments ecosystem.

This translated into higher transaction volumes, with an additional 6.3 million transactions per day on average compared with 2024, alongside stronger activity during festive periods such as year-end holidays and major celebrations.

This expansion was further supported by wider adoption across businesses and the rakyat. A total of 681,250 new DuitNow QR acceptance points were introduced, including 267,780 among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs), bringing the nationwide total to more than three million registered DuitNow QR touchpoints.

Adoption also strengthened across non-urban areas. The strongest growth was observed in Terengganu, Kelantan and Kedah, where non-urban transaction volumes tripled year-on-year, indicating sustained uptake across different segments of the population.

Programmes such as PayNet Digital Campus, which drives digital payment adoption amongst students, universities and its surrounding communities, and Cashless Boleh, which supports public sector and government adoption of digital payments, supported this shift by integrating digital payments into everyday environments. The PayNet Fintech Hub further supports ecosystem development by bringing together fintech startups, financial institutions and ecosystem partners to accelerate innovation and expand access to digital financial services.

Strengthening Trust, Security and Consumer Protection

As digital payments scale, the risk landscape has also evolved, particularly in the area of financial scams. Increasingly sophisticated tactics, including the use of artificial intelligence, deepfakes and social engineering, are making scams more difficult to detect and prevent.

In response, industry-wide efforts led by financial institutions and ecosystem partners have intensified, with stronger coordination across banks, regulators and ecosystem partners. The National Fraud Portal (NFP), developed by PayNet, serves as a centralised platform that enables participating institutions to share information, identify mule accounts more quickly, and coordinate response to disrupt fraudulent transactions and support fund recovery.

PayNet supports these efforts by operating and maintaining the NFP infrastructure, supporting the National Scam Response Centre in delivering timely responses to scam reports, and collaborating with financial institutions and regulators to strengthen overall fraud response across the ecosystem.

In 2025, these efforts contributed to the identification of about 57,700 victim accounts, with approximately RM46 million in earmarked funds in the process of being returned to affected users.

As transaction volumes grow, maintaining both system reliability and user trust remains critical. PayNet network processed an average of 260 transactions per second while maintaining 99.995% service availability, ensuring reliability at scale.

Praveen added, “As digital payments continue to grow, trust and security will remain critical. Strengthening safeguards against scams while maintaining a resilient and accessible infrastructure will continue to be a key priority for the ecosystem.”

Extending Malaysia’s Reach Through Cross-Border Connectivity

As domestic adoption expands, Malaysian businesses are increasingly able to participate in cross-border payment flows through PayNet’s growing network of DuitNow QR linkages.

A new QR payment linkage with Cambodia was introduced in 2025, complementing existing interoperability with Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and China, with India expected to follow in 2026. This will support inbound spending in line with Visit Malaysia 2026, with growing transaction volumes from China and similar momentum anticipated as India is enabled.

Cross-border QR transactions grew 2.5 times to 29.7 million in 2025. For businesses, particularly MSMEs, this expands access to a broader regional consumer base beyond domestic demand, enabling more seamless participation in cross-border commerce.

This enables Malaysian businesses to reach regional consumers more efficiently, particularly in sectors such as retail, food and beverage, and tourism.

These linkages form part of broader regional initiatives, including the Next50 Common Standards Project and Project Nexus, which aim to enable interoperable payment systems across ASEAN and support trade, tourism and regional economic integration.

Together with regulators and industry participants, these developments reflect a payments ecosystem that is expanding in participation, strengthening trust and becoming more connected across the region. Collectively, the industry continues to work towards a more inclusive, integrated and secure digital financial system, aligned with national priorities for the payments ecosystem.