E-Money More Popular than Credit Cards in Southeast Asia
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Five Southeast Asian Countries have attracted non-banks to build regional electronic wallet platforms, with total e-money transactions exceeding 10 billion.
Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand saw over 10 billion e-money transactions occur in 2018. Singapore led the region, accounting for 34 percent of total e-money transactions, having attracted nonbanks to build regional electronic wallet platforms, according to the inaugural 2019 Southeast Asia E-Money Market Report released by S&P Global Market Intelligence.
E-wallets aligned with high frequency and scalable use cases like ride-hailing and e-commerce are likely to grow and garner market share across the region. The volume of transactions processed through e-wallets is gaining steam. For example, we estimate that e-wallets’ share of total e-money volumes in Indonesia grew to 36 percent in 2018 from less than 10 percent in 2017, said Sampath Sharma Nariyanuri, CFA, Fintech Analyst at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The popularity of e-money products by non-banks for small-value transactions is supporting the rise of ride-hailing and e-commerce companies as financial intermediaries across Southeast Asia, the research firm noted.
Payments processed through platforms offered by ride-hailing companies Grab and Go-Jek; TrueMoney, a unit of e-commerce and fintech company Ascend Group; and AirPay, the financial services business of e-commerce and gaming company Sea amounted to roughly US$30 billion in aggregate annualized transaction value in 2018, according to the research firm’s estimates.
Questions & Answers
Q.Which specific countries are contributing to the growth of e-money in Southeast Asia?
Which specific countries are contributing to the growth of e-money in Southeast Asia?
The five Southeast Asian countries mentioned as attracting non-banks to build e-wallet platforms and seeing over 10 billion e-money transactions in 2018 are Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore, and Thailand.
Q.What kind of non-bank companies are driving the increase in e-money transactions?
What kind of non-bank companies are driving the increase in e-money transactions?
Companies like ride-hailing services Grab and Go-Jek, e-commerce and fintech company Ascend Group's unit TrueMoney, and Sea's financial services business AirPay are among those processing significant transaction values.
Q.How much was the total aggregated transaction value processed by these major e-wallet platforms in 2018?
How much was the total aggregated transaction value processed by these major e-wallet platforms in 2018?
Payments processed through platforms offered by companies such as Grab, Go-Jek, TrueMoney, and AirPay amounted to roughly US$30 billion in aggregate annualized transaction value in 2018, according to estimates.
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