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<\/a>Hajar Ariffin at her food stall, Pinggiran Highway, at the southbound Seremban R&R stop.<\/p>\n\u201cMost shops these days accept cashless payments and customers prefer it,\u201d said Hajar. \u201cIt makes things easier for us as business owners. Transactions are easier to track and we feel safer not handling as much physical cash.\u201d<\/p>\n
The cashless shift is not only limited to Malaysia\u2019s major cities but smaller towns too. The fastest e-payment growth in non-urban areas in 2025 was in the states of Kedah, Terengganu and Kelantan, where transaction volumes tripled year-on-year.<\/p>\n
In Kelantan, Padil Osman runs a traditional batik arts and crafts stall on Pulau Sri Tanjung, a fully cashless floating market. He says going digital has been a gamechanger, especially during busy periods.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt makes transactions seamless for tourists and the public. It\u2019s had a good impact on business,\u201d he said. Stories like Padil\u2019s reflect a wider shift taking place across the country, as digital payments become increasingly embedded in everyday life.<\/p>\n Behind the shift is the broader payments ecosystem enabling millions of Malaysians to pay digitally every day. In 2025, Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet) processed 8.4 billion digital payment transactions, a 33% increase year-on-year. As Malaysia\u2019s national payments network, PayNet operates platforms such as DuitNow for QR payments, MyDebit for domestic debit card transactions, FPX for online purchases and JomPAY for bill payments. Majority owned by Bank Negara Malaysia, alongside 11 local banks, PayNet works closely with financial institutions, fintech players, merchants and regulators to advance the country\u2019s digital payments ecosystem.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat is changing is not just how people pay but what they expect from payments,\u201d said PayNet Chief Executive Officer Praveen Rajan. \u201cSpeed, reliability and ease of use are no longer a bonus. People increasingly expect payments to work instantly and seamlessly. The focus now is ensuring the system continues to be trusted, resilient and accessible as the reliance on digital payments grows.\u201d<\/p>\n That reliability has become increasingly important as more people adopt digital payments. In 2025, PayNet\u2019s network processed an average of 260 transactions per second while maintaining 99.995% service availability, helping ensure payments remained seamless even during peak periods.<\/p>\n One of the clearest signs of changing payment behaviour can be seen among younger Malaysians. Across 44 universities, PayNet Digital Campus recorded 58.7 million digital transactions in 2025, more than double the year before.<\/p>\n Now in its fourth year, PayNet Digital Campus is a student-led programme involving universities, student representative councils and merchants to encourage digital payments in campus life. Universities function as self-contained communities where students make repeated daily transactions, from meals and transport to parking and printing. As students increasingly adopt digital payments, merchants on campus tend to follow, reinforcing cashless behaviour. The shift also extends beyond campus grounds, with nearby businesses increasingly accepting digital payments to meet student demand.<\/p>\n At campuses such as Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM) and Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), digital payments have become second nature.<\/p>\n Dania Natasya, a student leader at UTAR who helped drive cashless payments during Digital Campus 4.0, says the change has been gradual but noticeable.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhen I first started in UTAR, I would still see students using cash to pay for food. But slowly, they realised that cashless is so much easier. So now we\u2019re seeing that more merchants have DuitNow QR codes,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Today, there are more than three million DuitNow QR touchpoints nationwide as adoption continues to grow among micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs).<\/p>\n \u201cDigital payments started as an alternative option but increasingly have become the first choice,\u201d said economic analyst Professor Madya Dr. Aimi Zulhazmi Abdul Rashid from UniKL Business School. \u201cAs more consumers adopt them and more merchants accept them, usage has become part of everyday routines. People today expect payments to be fast, simple and practical because cashless transactions are now part of daily life.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>Padil Osman at his arts and crafts stall on Pulau Sri Tanjung, a tourist attraction in Kelantan.\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/a>Praveen Rajan, CEO of PayNet.<\/p>\n<\/a>UTAR student leader Dania Natasya presents during a pitching session at PayNet Digital Campus on 25th February 2026.<\/p>\n