14th May 2019 – Deutsche Bank today announced that it is now able to process payments using Malaysia’s instant credit clearing system, DuitNow (read: do-it-now) for corporate clients. Duitnow is an initiative aligned with the ambitions of ASEAN 2025, which include creating a regional real-time payment ecosystem.
This real-time fund transfer platform will allow Deutsche Bank’s corporate clients to make payments and receive funds nationwide, processing end-to-end payments within 20 seconds using the “any-ID” or proxy principle.
With the key milestone of the launch of DuitNow, Malaysia moves from relying on a cheque-based payment infrastructure, to one where any participant in the instant credit clearing system can process a payment instantly at a lower cost. Additionally, with the reduction of the use of cheques, the value proposition of international banks, such as Deutsche Bank, in Malaysia is significantly strengthened.
DuitNow allows for the use of any-ID, where our corporates no longer have to maintain the bank details of their employees, as their National ID number on file with their Human Resources is all they need to remit salaries or reimbursements out to them. Even if employees change their bank accounts, the funds will automatically be routed to their preferred account linked to their National ID number.
Another example of the benefits of DuitNow is with clients in the telecommunications industry, who no longer need to have cash in-house or issue cheques to repay deposits as they will only need a mobile phone number to pay back deposits. Insurance companies equally will be able to pay out urgent claims using the accepted proxy of their clients on file.
Jacqueline William, Head of Global Transaction Banking, Malaysia at Deutsche Bank, said: “We are supportive of the government’s efforts to modernise the payments infrastructure in Malaysia and will continue to invest in such initiatives, which in this case stands to greatly benefit our corporate clients by increasing the speed of local payments.”
Instant Payment by proxy has already been introduced in Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia with the goal of facilitating the first cross-border flows within ASEAN in the next 12 months.