Cashless payments on the rise

Radi El-Fassed, Progresif’s Head of Product Development, Dr Gyorgy Ladics, BIBD Chief Operating Officer  and Hajah Nurul Akmar binti Haji Mohd Jaafar, BIBD Head of Retail Banking addressing the media on cashless payment trends yesterday

We are heading towards a cashless society. It takes two to tango though – the consumers and also the merchants (retailers). It was easier to adopt when a bank introduces newer convenient services then such as ATMs, followed by online banking and transferring money through your mobile phones to another account. Now BIBD has provided a better platform where you can pay your services and goods through your mobile on selected merchants. This basically mean you don’t have to use physical money to pay over the counter. All you need is just your smartphone and waalaaa, you don’t need your change back physically and plus you will look cooler just by paying your items using your phone.

Yesterday BIBD emphasized how branchless banking have made it so convenient for their customers as it allows everyone and anyone to have access to financial services and they don’t even have to physically drop by a bank to do so. I was quite surprised that BIBD NEXGEN Wallet has generated more than 14 million worth of transactions in 2018 alone. That’s pretty high for such a small country like Brunei Darussalam. This really shows how technology has made it easier for the flow of money from one account to another account at your finger tips. Actually I am a high user of BIBD NEXGEN Wallet as I have received and send payments through the BIBD mobile app.

The next step now is to actually capitalized on the latest featured made possible by BIBD and Progresif and that is making payments to the merchants using your phone through BIBD’s QuickPay and Progresif’s Progresif Pay.

Present during the demonstration and press conference were  Dr Gyorgy Ladics, BIBD Chief Operating Officer , Hajah Nurul Akmar binti Haji Mohd Jaafar, BIBD Head of Retail Banking and Radi El-Fassed, Progresif’s Head of Product Development.

In the press release, Mubashar Khokhar, BIBD’s Managing Director and CEO, said that whilst BIBD have placed efforts into encouraging the adoption of a digital Bruneian economy via our own technologies that resulted in over 140,000 BIBD NEXGEN banking users, they remain cognisant we need to go further and evolve if we were to create more impact for a truly digital economy.

With mobile penetration, it will create even a bigger digitized financial ecosystem and it will help spur the economy due to the convenience. This will also be a win-win situation for both consumers and even the merchants because of the lowered set-up costs and the barrier to entry (in business) is low too.

So far, they are 100ish merchants that have used QuickPay and one of the leading merchants is Fuel’d, a popular healthy food joint in Kiulap. As more people getting the hang of using digital payments through mobile phones, future merchants/retailers will see the surging demand of cashless payments through means of paying through your mobile phones.

Progresif’s latest product Progresif Pay have entered the market and now they have even bettered their mobile app. You don’t have to be a Progresif subscriber to make use of Progresif Pay (Awww, nice of you) and you can switch numbers through the App as well at your convenience. I am happy for the fact that you’re able to buy iTunes credit through their e-credit tab on the Progresif Pay. Now that’s very convenient.

If you really want to know more about BIBD’s QuickPay and Progresif’s Progresif Pay, head over to MSME Festival to be held at the BRIDEX International Conference Centre 28th to 31st March and you will see some vendors (especially the ice-cream vendors) making use of these said services. You will see how convenient it is to make payments and furthermore, it is secured.

What I am more excited is that you can even pay through means of NFC where you simply tap on your smartphone on the merchant payment terminal and your transaction will be completed, just like that. Easy, huh? I know Brunei is currently behind when it comes to NFC or payments through mobile phones but the momentum is slowly growing and kudos to the first 100 merchants in believing the power of cashless transactions.

We are definitely heading on the right direction and thank you to BIBD and Progresif on making this service available in the Brunei market.

A demo on how easy it is making payments over the counter through means of your mobile phones