- 5 hours ago
Malaysia is in one of the world’s fastest-rising digital markets, but payment fragmentation still holds businesses especially SMEs from expanding into ASEAN. Different settlement times, extra steps for compliance and manual reconciliation add real cost to doing business across borders.
Lee Zian Wei, Chief Strategy Officer, Xendit Malaysia and Jayson Poon, Country Manager, Xendit Malaysia share perspectives on how Malaysia can move toward reliable, fast and consistent regional payments; and what that could mean for our competitiveness in an ASEAN digital economy projected to pass USD 1 trillion by 2030.
Lee Zian Wei, Chief Strategy Officer, Xendit Malaysia and Jayson Poon, Country Manager, Xendit Malaysia share perspectives on how Malaysia can move toward reliable, fast and consistent regional payments; and what that could mean for our competitiveness in an ASEAN digital economy projected to pass USD 1 trillion by 2030.
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00:00Hello and welcome to Nyaga Spotlight with me Tamina Kaosji. Nyaga Spotlight takes us through
00:12the week in economic analysis and future affairs. Now today on analysis, our spotlight is on the
00:18race to seamless ASEAN payments. In essence, we are looking at one of the least glamorous
00:23but most decisive factors in Malaysia's next stage of digital growth, how money moves across ASEAN.
00:29Now across the region, businesses still face different payment rules, settlement times and
00:35verification standards in every market. Even with plenty of progress on cross-border QR links between
00:42Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and Indonesia, the reality on the ground remains uneven. For many
00:49Malaysian firms, especially SMEs, expanding into ASEAN still means slower collections, higher costs
00:55and complicated reconciliation across multiple systems. Now this matters because ASEAN's digital
01:02economy is projected to exceed 1 trillion USD by 2030. Yet cross-border payment friction keeps many
01:09Malaysian companies especially from capturing this growth. The question now is whether we can
01:16build reliable, fast and consistent payment rails that match the scale of regional trade. Today,
01:22we speak with two leaders shaping that transition and what it could mean for Malaysia's competitiveness
01:27in a fast integrating ASEAN. Welcome to the studios today. With me are Lee Zianwe, Chief Strategy Officer
01:34with Zendit Malaysia, together with Jason Poon, Country Manager, Zendit Malaysia. A very good morning,
01:39gentlemen. Pleasure to have you in the studios. Let's get started off by perhaps me first asking Zian about
01:46the fragmented payment systems in Southeast Asia. So a couple of perspectives with the fact that of
01:53course when you're looking at Southeast Asia cross-border payments, you're definitely dealing
01:58with different rules, different settlement times and payment methods in every country. From your
02:03regional view, what are some of the biggest frictions which are slowing down cross-border payments
02:09first before we launch into how Zendit's actually approaching all of these pain points?
02:15Thank you for the introduction, Tamina. I think some of the challenges that businesses face when
02:21they are going cross-border, like you rightly pointed out, regulation, because every different
02:26country has their own different set of regulation that businesses have to adhere to. Compliance,
02:32every country have different levels of maturity, fraud risk and so on, hence resulting in stricter
02:39compliance requirements depending on the different countries. On-boarding requirements as well,
02:44what is familiar to Malaysian businesses may not be something that they are familiar with going
02:51cross-border and businesses have to start over in each country whenever they try to expand regionally,
02:59not to mention the hundreds of different types of payment channels across Southeast Asia. You have
03:05FPX online banking that is very familiar to local businesses, but there's also virtual accounts in
03:11Indonesia that's probably unheard of. Over here at least, but it's a huge, incredibly large market there.
03:17It's the number one biggest payment channel in Indonesia, as well as all the different QR payment options
03:25across Southeast Asia. So how Zendid solves this is we aggregate all of the above and we remove the
03:34complexities such that businesses just have to deal with one partner when they are expanding regionally.
03:40It's a simple onboarding process for them to, and a single platform and dashboard such that it's just a single reporting and reconciliation process for them, such that they don't have to deal with one report for every single payment channel they have.
03:54Absolutely. So of course, that seamlessness is part of the biggest draw. And most recently, Zendid also has integration together with PayX that is also going to perhaps add on to some immediate improvements for Malaysian businesses. What does this mean?
04:13So I think what's interesting is now Malaysian businesses not only enjoys the full capability of what PayX used to have, you're talking about all the local payment options, recurring payments, installment payments.
04:28At the same time, we now also have access to Zendid's regional payment capabilities, such as PayNow in Singapore, Curious Indonesia. And because we are licensed in every market that we're in, we have a relationship with all the local payment networks and a local operation team in every market we're in.
04:47We can help local businesses breach the gap between Malaysia and cross-border.
04:52Exactly. Because that brings you to a stage where you're able to also assist with regional competitiveness. Thanks, Yan.
04:59Jason, I'd like to talk to you a little more in depth about the real pain points that you've observed via the work that you do with Malaysian SMEs.
05:08They are managing definitely multiple payment providers and having to reconcile sales by hand at the end of the day.
05:15So from what you see on the ground, which part of our payment processes are actually rather inefficient today and they can be smooth much further along with some of these innovations?
05:27Sure. Thanks for having us here today. Yeah. So I think like what you have pointed out, I think the SME, businesses in Malaysia in general, have to deal with more than a thousand payment channels.
05:38I think this region, including Malaysia, was blessed with a diversity of payment channels.
05:46Right. And then at one hand is good because the customer would then have multiple choices to make payments.
05:51Sure, sure.
05:51On the business side, it could sometimes create a little bit of chaos behind the scenes, right?
05:57So having to deal with all the payment channels means the business now would have to access the dashboard from each of the different providers.
06:06Friends who work on businesses have told me they now have to manage about two, three or four dashboards at the same time.
06:13What that means is that it's lower settlement, tougher reconciliation on the finance part point of view.
06:19And this is more so if the businesses decided to go beyond Malaysia, like what ZN has mentioned, into other Southeast Asian markets,
06:28they could potentially have to deal with hundreds of payment channels.
06:31So I think what Zendid now come into the picture is that we then provide a single dashboard for local businesses to accept all the local payment channel,
06:41including also the overseas payment channel that we had across Southeast Asia, really, you know, abstracting all the complexity that the businesses would have to face if they would expand in Southeast Asia
06:51and then let them focus on things that matter the most to them, which is to grow their business.
06:57Exactly, because it is a matter of fact that even in 2025, there are plenty of SMEs who are still actually manually tabulating their numbers at the end of the day.
07:07Over time, of course, not sustainable at all, especially if you want to be on a growth trajectory.
07:12Thanks for that, Jason.
07:13So, Zian, now let's talk about looking at turning interoperability into real business value.
07:20So, Malaysia, of course, we've made plenty of progress with our cross-border QR links with Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia,
07:26but adoption sizes also vary by sector and business size.
07:32Tell us a little more about what Zendid is doing to convert such regional links into practical benefits for the business owners.
07:40I think what's interesting about how we have evolved regionally is, for example, post-COVID,
07:46whenever I have to travel, I always have to go to a money exchanger to exchange money whenever I have to go abroad to pay.
07:55But post-COVID, especially regionally, recently I haven't had to do that at all using any bank app in Malaysia.
08:04I can go to Singapore to pay via QNOW, go to Indonesia to pay via QRS.
08:10And I think what's interesting about that is because Zendid is a regional player and we are connected and working with all these local payment rails,
08:20we're in a very good position to work with them to help solve these pain points for businesses.
08:27For example, one very interesting problem we encountered was, for example,
08:31when a local Malaysian customer tried to pay in Thailand when they tried to scan a PromPay app,
08:39that failed because the merchant there was using a personal QR rather than a business QR.
08:47Understood. Okay.
08:48Because we are a partner of PromPay and also doing it now in Malaysia,
08:51we are able to identify these issues and work with the local payment rails to help solve for these problems.
08:57Exactly. So there is a lot of value and it's, of course, also a learning process
09:02because, for example, localised merchants outside of Malaysia,
09:07they also slowly are able to understand the value of being on wider operating systems.
09:13Great. Jason, so then talking about keeping compliance strong without raising costs.
09:18Now, that's always the be-all and the end-all when it comes to businesses
09:23and why they decide to sign up and sign on to a platform provider.
09:27Tell us about how, whereas Malaysia is strengthening our rules for fraud prevention,
09:32at the same time, some of the compliance requirements have become a little bit harder to bear
09:39for the smaller players in business.
09:42Some ideas on that.
09:43For sure, for sure.
09:44I think one of our key value prop is really to abstract the complexity
09:49when it comes to compliance and regulations, especially for the SMEs.
09:53How we do that, last year alone, I think we processed close to $45 billion worth of US dollars in transaction.
10:00Impressive, yes.
10:01I believe we have some of the best-in-class infrastructure, hardened infrastructure to process payments securely within the region.
10:10And I think we also ensure that all the payments that go through our infrastructure are hardened,
10:16and then all the payments would have to be authenticated properly.
10:20Users have to provide consent before the payment is made.
10:23We work very hard towards that.
10:26And the next point that I'll look right to raise is also, by default, most of the SMEs of businesses in Malaysia,
10:35they let us manage the payment page for them.
10:38So by doing so, again, they don't have to worry too much about all the compliances that they'll have to meet,
10:45which is costly and cumbersome.
10:48So we took that away from the SMEs.
10:51That's incredible, because that completely removes the dimension of the slowed-down onboarding for these smaller SMEs.
10:58And what's the feedback been so far lately over, let's say, just the past year, Jason?
11:04Across the board, I think it's positive.
11:07I think the merchants that were with us for a few years, you know, are now not just riding on PayX,
11:14they also understood that what Zenit infrastructure is able to give them.
11:18I think Zian spoke about the regional reach, what it then also mean then SMEs in Malaysia,
11:24who have now customers, you know, whether it's from Singapore or Thailand or Indonesia,
11:30they can quickly grow into those countries without the need to open a new bank account,
11:34new business entity, or at the flip of a click of a button, they can do that already.
11:40So it drastically reduces the amount of time they need to enter new markets
11:44and onboarding to these new regions to grow their business.
11:48Exactly, and trying to make sure that it's as inclusive as possible,
11:51both for the bigger players as well as for the smaller businesses.
11:54Zian, from there, I think the interesting point to pick up on is that, of course,
11:59we've got to balance regional scale with Malaysia's regulatory landscape.
12:04Now, Malaysia, of course, has one of ASEAN's most structured, forward-looking
12:08and sophisticated financial systems.
12:11We've got great oversight from, of course, Bank Negara, the established digital rails,
12:16FPX do it now.
12:18Now, how is Zendit then growing your regional scale while also being cognizant of the fact
12:25that this is not necessarily the shared landscape in each ASEAN partner country?
12:31I think what's interesting is while Malaysia is one of ASEAN's most structured markets,
12:36we treat that as a standard rather than a barrier.
12:41Right, okay.
12:42And what we learn from working with the local regulations and compliance
12:48also informs us of our decision-making process in our other countries.
12:53Vice versa, whatever we learn from other markets that we find applicable to Malaysia as well,
12:59we can bring what we learn from other markets to Malaysia as well.
13:05Yeah, so that's, I think, some interesting lessons because rather than try and maybe remove
13:11remove the type of parameters that you have for the Malaysian market to match perhaps
13:16one of the other ASEAN countries with lesser, let's say, digitalization and connectivity,
13:22you try and apply the reverse.
13:24So that's really interesting.
13:25I would also like to pick up on asking about the immediate gains that Malaysian merchants
13:31could be expecting.
13:32Jason, tell us a little bit more about this, particularly from the perspective of the wider lens
13:37of PayX, of course, is known for improving both onboarding as well as reconciliation for
13:43enterprises.
13:44And at the same time, Zendit is going to be bringing some regional reach, some perspectives
13:49around this.
13:50Definitely.
13:50I think the PayX Zendit system is now fully integrated and really the merchant wouldn't
13:58feel anything out of, from the merger.
14:01We designed it to be such a way so that they don't feel any pains of having to change from
14:05a PayX system.
14:06No migration time or, you know, adjustment window.
14:11No downtime.
14:12Everything just worked perfectly like it used to be.
14:14So I think we designed the change process around those scope.
14:19And obviously, with Zendit now, like I just mentioned, because of the infrastructure and
14:25the regional reach we have, previously, the SME can only tap onto the Malaysian payment
14:30method that PayX offer.
14:31But right now, they can quickly expand into Singapore or Indonesia the next day if they
14:37want to.
14:38So really greatly supercharged their expansion regionally within ASEAN.
14:42Exactly.
14:43So I'm actually hearing that there's a couple of different types of improvements.
14:47Perhaps we can dig deeper into looking at faster approvals and smoother settlements and how these
14:54two factors in particular actually help the SMEs along their journey.
14:59Yeah, sure.
15:00So all this is done within this one unified single dashboard.
15:04Like I mentioned earlier, I think in Malaysia alone, most of SME today have to deal with
15:10multiple providers, let alone going regionally.
15:12So I think right now, all nicely put together in a single dashboard, reconcilations, automated,
15:20there's no need of manual work, save time, save energy for the businesses, and yeah, give
15:26them all the time and energy for them to focus on things that matter, do them more.
15:29Exactly.
15:30So it does sound like rather than having to develop a specific technical knowledge, skill
15:35set, merchants can then just focus on actually starting it for their back-end systems and
15:42then going ahead with other parts of the business.
15:45So let's say, for example, for someone out there who might be hesitant for their micro-enterprise
15:51to come on board such payment processing channels, what would you say will be the first day-one
15:57improvement that a micro-merchant would be able to notice?
16:01Yeah.
16:02I think to build on the point I mentioned earlier, I think now immediately have access to previously
16:09tens of payment channels, but now hundreds of payment channels instantly that can activate
16:14just to inform us.
16:16I think they also can enjoy some of the newer features that Zendit dashboard provides.
16:21Previously, PayX was heavily focused on payment acceptance.
16:25Zendit can now does payout for the merchants.
16:29So it's a full stack payment journey for the merchants within Zendit dashboard.
16:35But of course, for some of the more sophisticated merchants who operate multiple branches, multiple
16:41companies, subsidiaries, they're looking to have more detailed sub-accounts kind of ledger.
16:47Zendit can fully support it.
16:48And this is the features enhancement that previously PayX doesn't quite have, but Zendit now have
16:53a full range of it.
16:56So a full stack indeed.
16:58So Zian, perhaps let's now draw out and have an even bigger picture as we move to closing
17:04out our conversation.
17:06Now, Malaysia also matters a lot when it comes to Zendit's next phase with our digital economy
17:11growing really steadily.
17:12So why is Malaysia a priority market for Zendit's next phase?
17:17Tell us a little more.
17:19I think there's mainly three key pillars that is why Malaysia is such a priority for Zendit.
17:26One is the large digital consumer base that Malaysia has, a large SME base across Malaysia,
17:37and lastly, a very supportive national agenda to growing our digital infrastructure.
17:44Because of all these three things, we are very eager to work with Malaysia businesses to
17:51develop new technologies, innovative solutions such as doing our auto debit and working with
17:57Malaysia for, you know, Tourism Malaysia 2026.
18:01So all these digital agendas that we are very interested to work with Malaysia.
18:07Absolutely.
18:08So there's a lot that's going to be happening, especially in the next calendar year.
18:12Tourism Malaysia year 2026 is, of course, one of the key highlights.
18:17What would you say also, with a slightly wider lens, Zian, would be some of the other interesting
18:22tangible outcomes that Zendit is looking forward to over the next two years, slightly longer term
18:30than just the next year of 2026?
18:33Yeah, I think driving innovation, I think a lot of local businesses typically are very
18:39familiar with the local landscape.
18:42But we want to help businesses expand across the horizon to see how they can target ASEAN as
18:50a market rather than just Malaysia as a market, to help them easily sell across to Indonesia,
18:58to Thailand, and make it very easy for them to do so, so that they don't have to think about
19:03the effects, they don't have to think about the different payment methods.
19:07So by broadening the market size, from a 30 million population market, they can immediately
19:15have access to a 600 million size market.
19:19Exactly.
19:20Now, that's definitely something to focus on, because even though we have, as you mentioned,
19:24we've got fantastic digital penetration, but of course, our cross-border transaction volume
19:29still remains rather modest.
19:31So there's plenty more opportunity.
19:32Perhaps very quickly, some parting thoughts from Jason about helping Malaysians as a means
19:39to sell across Southeast Asia, bridging from the fact that, of course, the returns are still
19:44a bit modest.
19:45So how do we encourage that ecosystem?
19:48I feel like the time is now.
19:50If you were to grow beyond Malaysia, I think Malaysia, we just finished the ASEAN chairmanship.
19:57That's right.
19:57I think what we heard across the business industry is this growing sense of, growing
20:05call for the businesses to grow beyond just Malaysia.
20:08And then Malaysia has a lot to offer.
20:11And I think Zendid now gives these businesses the tool and the capacity to quickly grow as
20:17compared to last time, where they have to do this manually.
20:20So ride on us, tap onto us, grow beyond Malaysia and make Malaysia proud again.
20:24There you go.
20:26So the opportunity clearly lies there.
20:27Thank you very much, Zian, as well as Jason, for your insights today.
20:31Thank you so much.
20:32So closing out, ASEAN's digital trade potential is clear, but the region will only move also
20:37as fast as its payment infrastructure for Malaysia.
20:40The better connectivity, stronger reliability and also smoother settlement flows aren't any
20:45longer optional.
20:46They determine whether our businesses can compete across borders.
20:49The path forward is clearly about reducing friction and building those systems that help every
20:54Malaysian firm scale confidently into the region.
20:58And a great example of that, of course, is Zendid itself.
21:00That's all we have time for today.
21:02I'm Tamina Kausji signing off for now.
21:04We'll see you again next round.
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