KUALA LUMPUR — Bank Negara Malaysia’s wholly-owned subsidiary Malaysian Electronic Clearing Corporation Sdn Bhd (MyClear) today officially launched a simple easy-to-use mobile e-banking facility “MyMobile”, tapping into the vast market of 38 million mobile phones in the country.

To kick-off, MyMobile has teamed up with Malaysia’s three largest banks – CIMB, Maybank and Public Bank as well as with the country’s three largest telco operators Maxis, Celcom and DiGi who collectively have a captive market of 93 per cent to ensure mass capture and take-up. The initiative resulted from a Mobile Payment Ecosystem that was formed through the leadership of Bank Negara Malaysia with the active participation of the Malaysian Communication and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) and Malaysian Administrative Modernization and Planning Unit (MAMPU) of the Prime Minister’s Department.

Performing the launch honours of MyMobile today was MyClear Chairman Dato’ Ooi Sang Kuang at Berjaya Times SquareSpeaking at the launch Dato’ Ooi said, “The widespread availability of hand phones makes mobile networks a compelling channel for initiating and receiving e-Payments. MyMobile service seeks to leverage on the ubiquitous availability of mobile phones in Malaysia to increase access to e-Payments.”

With MyMobile, subscribers can perform telco mobile airtime reloads, 3rd party fund transfers, and payments for bills and credit cards, in real time within minutes. MyMobile is the only mobile-to-mobile payment service in Malaysia in which smart phones are not required nor are mobile apps to be downloaded. MyMobile is secure, yet easily accessible by everyone, anytime and anywhere with the most basic of hand phones. MyMobile is positioned as a solution for all market segments that will work with any mobile phone, from low cost basic handsets to sophisticated smartphones.

“Almost 74,000 consumers have subscribed to MyMobile since the pilot in 2012. We must now reach out to the millions of mobile phone subscribers, bank account holders, and rate payers, to ensure that they are aware of MyMobile’s compelling value proposition,” Dato’ Ooi added.

Malaysia is currently enjoying exponential growth of mobile banking from 675,000 subscribers in 2009 to more than 2.44 million subscribers in 2012 yet, the penetration rate of mobile banking remains at only 8.1 per cent.

At MyClear, product development is in the pipeline for a smartphone version of MyMobile that will provide an intuitive and easy-to-use interface for initiating and receiving fund. Financial institutions should leverage on our upcoming MyMobile smartphone solution to augment and enrich their existing mobile banking services to make mobile banking more attractive for consumers.

To step up subscription for MyMobile, the promotional launch roll-out includes exciting prizes of 30 IPad Mini 16GB Wifi and 30 Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 7” to be won over the next 60 days. Winners should be selected based on highest transaction amount picked up by the system, the statement added.

Currently MyMobile is also available for the remittance of payments to the Kuala Lumpur City Hall (DBKL), Shah Alam City Council (MBSA), Subang Jaya Municipal Council (MPSJ), Klang Municipal Council (MPK), Ampang Jaya Municipal Council (MPAJ) and the National Higher Education Fund (PTPTN).

MyMobile is offered free until 30 April 2013. Subscribers need to register with their respective participating banks for this facility as well as being an active subscriber.