Deputy Finance Minister: 14.6m Internet banking subscribers in Malaysia

KUALA LUMPUR: Internet banking in Malaysia has grown significantly alongside the use of smart phones and tablets and the penetration rate is half of the country's population, says Deputy Finance Minister Datuk Ahmad Maslan.

He said on Wednesday that as at June 2013, there were 14.6 million subscribers of Internet banking in Malaysia.

“It makes for a total of 14.3 million individuals and 0.3 million corporate subscribers. This gives a 49.1% rate of penetration in our population,” he said during the opening of BankTech Asia 2013 Congress.

For mobile banking, he added, the number of subscribers have reached 3.25 million, with the penetration rate at 10.9% of the population and 7.6% of all mobile subscribers.

“In terms of growth, Internet banking has the potential to generate savings of about 1% of gross domestic product annually,” he said.

Ahmad Maslan said the roll-out of Internet kiosks at all bank branches next March would boost the growth and make it easier to access.

He noted the Financial Sector Blueprint, under the auspices of Bank Negara Malaysia, has targeted to raise Malaysia’s e-payment transactions per capita from 56 in 2012 to 200 by 2020.

“Here we can say that while Internet banking in Malaysia has seen great progress, mobile banking is at the same time showing the potential to grow further,” he said.