News : Jusco first mall to accept Visa Wave card

Jusco first mall to accept Visa Wave card

Friday September 15, 2006
By SABRY TAHIR

PETALING JAYA: AEON Co (M) Bhd has teamed up with Visa International and Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) to become the first departmental store operator to accept the Visa Wave contactless payment card.

Under the collaboration, Maybank will install 150 Visa Wave readers to accept payments for purchases below RM110 at 14 Jusco stores and two Jusco J-One supermarkets nationwide, beginning with Jusco 1 Utama and Jusco Taman Maluri.

AEON managing director Nagahisa Oyama said all the remaining outlets would be accepting payment by Visa Wave cards soon.

“We are taking customer-friendly shopping to another level with the acceptance of Visa Wave,” he told reporters at the launch of the Jusco Maybankard Visa Wave yesterday.

From left: Jeffrey Perera, Ashraf Ali Kadir and Nagahisa Oyama at the launch of Jusco Maybankard Visa WaveMalaysia was the first country in the world to implement the Visa Wave contactless payment technology last year, which allowed consumers a convenient way to make payments within seconds.

With Jusco as the latest member, there are now more than 2,200 merchants and 3,300 readers deployed in the Klang Valley to accept Visa Wave.

Visa International country manager Jeffrey Perera hoped to have at least 600,000 Visa Wave cards in the market by year-end.

“Currently, there are five banks offering the card, and a number of other banks has shown interest as well. So, this will spur the take-up,” he said.

He also said talks were being held between the industry players and Bank Negara to increase the transaction limit of RM110.

Maybank executive vice-president and head of card business Ashraf Ali Abdul Kadir said the introduction of the contactless payment card was testimony of its popularity among consumers and business establishments.

Maybank, which has 25% share of the card payment services market, is the only bank in Malaysia that provides a full range of credit, charge and debit card payment services with a total of 6.3 million card.

“We expect our market share in card payment services to increase as we aim to significantly grow our Maybankard Visa Wave member base in particular,” he said.

Maybank had 1.3 million credit, charge and debit cards as at July 31, and its card business was growing at an annual rate of 15% to 18%, Ashraf said, adding that Maybank had issued more than 20,000 Visa Wave cards.

[tags : shoppingNsales news malaysia]