In a recent announcement, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) announced that micro and small businesses will continue to benefit from DuitNow QR payment fee waivers. This announcement came after concerns following the end of a temporary fee waiver introduced in 2019.
This fee was intended to cover costs and investments needed by the industry to upkeep their payment systems, of which includes cybersecurity and fraud prevention controls, in order to maintain the high service and security standards for payment services.
DuitNow QR is an effective payment method that is both affordable and cost-effective for businesses and individuals alike. For individual customers, the usage of DuitNow QR for payments will not incur any additional costs or charges. For businesses, any transaction fee imposed on QR payments remains as low as, or lower than, fees imposed on payments using debit cards.
Businesses that utilise DuitNow QR as a payment method also do not need to incur costs for point-of-sale (POS) terminal rental for card-based payments or additional overhead and administrative costs for handling cash payments.
According to BNM, the industry will be taking measures to minimise as much of the potential impact of transaction fees on small businesses as possible.
As mentioned previously, one of these measures include major banks and and selected non-bank financial service providers, who manage up to 75% of businesses that are currently accepting DuitNow QR payments, have announced that small and micro businesses will continue to benefit from waived transaction fees.
Additionally, PayNet will allocate resources to help settle the costs incurred by acquirers that continue to offer full waivers to micro and small businesses accepting DuitNow QR payments.
These measures combined should prove useful in enabling micro and small businesses to continue to enjoy DuitNow QR payment services at zero cost. It will also ensure that the DuitNow QR payment service remains efficient, reliable, and safe for all consumers.
Read More: Banks To Start Charging Businesses Transaction Fees For QR Payments
