- Grab has announced a partnership with Maybank to share their network of key partner merchants, providing their users more commerce options on their upcoming GrabPay e-wallet service.
- With this partnership, GrabPay users will be able to pay using the service at Maybank partner merchants, and reload their balances through the Maybank2U platform, in addition to earning exclusive rewards points.
- With Maybank the largest bank locally and Grab the largest ride-hailing platform in Malaysia, this partnership will drive GrabPay’s claim to become the most widely adopted e-wallet in Malaysia.
With the GrabPay e-wallet service set to launch its beta phase locally in the coming weeks, Grab Malaysia today announced a partnership with Maybank—Southeast Asia’s fourth largest bank by assets, and Malaysia’s largest—to integrate the GrabPay service with Maybank’s own network of key merchants, essentially broadening their reach to a larger base of businesses.
Through this partnership, Grab users will not only be able to use the mobile wallet at GrabPay merchants, but also at all of Maybank’s partner merchants.
Similarly, Maybank customers will also have the option of paying using Maybank’s QRPay to shop at GrabPay partner merchants.
Byproducts of this partnership also include GrabPay customers now having the convenience of topping up their wallet balances through Maybank2U, and the collection of exclusive Grab rewards through using GrabPay during payment.
This collaboration will also see Grab and Maybank work together to bring in more shopping options for their users while introducing tools to aid merchant partners reach a wider market base and allow them access to tools to help track their transactions on the GrabPay platform.
“This partnership underlines the strength of Grab’s collaborative approach. The whole industry needs to come together to make the cashless economy a reality in Malaysia,” said Ooi Huey Tyng, Managing Director of GrabPay in Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines.
“We are honoured to partner with Maybank which not only shares our vision of a cashless payments future, but also recognises Grab as ideally poised to help make this a reality.”
All this comes in the wake of Bank Negara’s active push for Malaysia to go cashless. According to a statistic they provided, cash handling and related-services currently cost in the region of RM1.8 billion annually, and a shift towards electronic payments may result in savings amounting up to 1% of Malaysia’s economy.
And as it stands, Grab is now Malaysia’s largest ride-hailing service by volume after it absorbed regional competitors Uber in a takeover deal earlier this year.
As it partners with Maybank (with more than 43% of the local market share), Grab is effectively ensuring GrabPay’s charge to become the most widely adopted e-wallet service locally.
They now also move significantly closer towards their target of becoming the one-stop app for Malaysians to perform their daily activities. Through the same app, Malaysians will soon be able to access multiple services such as ride-hailing, food deliver, online shopping, and financial services.
As we inch closer towards becoming a cashless society, it remains to see what other partnerships Grab will announce in the near future, or if competitors such as AliPay, vcash, or even Astro’s new Payfy will attempt to challenge this early dominance by introducing initiatives of their own.
- To read more about Grab’s ambition to become Malaysia’s one-stop app for daily life, read this article.
Feature Image Credit: Grab Malaysia
