Cashless payments catching on in South-east Asia: Visa survey

GOING cashless is gaining ground in South-east Asia, according to Visa's latest study on consumer payment methods and attitudes.

In markets where cashless adoption had a head start, such as Malaysia, Singapore and Thailand, consumers reckon that the pandemic has accelerated the transition towards cashless methods by at least three to five years.

The growth of digital payment methods came as Covid-19 upended traditional consumer habits. Now, 46 per cent of consumers use card payment methods, while 63 per cent use contactless payment.

Nearly two-thirds of consumers in the region attempted to go cashless in 2020, with Vietnam (84 per cent), Thailand (82 per cent) and the Philippines (79 per cent) blazing ahead. On average, consumers who tried to go cashless were able to do so for more than a week (9.9 days).

Consumers from Cambodia and the Philippines topped the region with 12 days, while the shortest run (5.7 days) was from consumers in Myanmar.

But this has been largely due to the pandemic, as lockdowns and movement restrictions reduced opportunities for consumers to pay in cash.

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Consumers in the Philippines (68 per cent), Indonesia (64 per cent) and Malaysia (59 per cent) have been the most affected.

Other concerns such as health and safety have led to 43 per cent of consumers in the region opting to go cashless. Now, more than half (54 per cent) of South-east Asian consumers prefer digital payments to carrying cash.

Across the region, cash is the preferred payment method for 45 per cent of consumers. Online card use and e-wallets are the most popular modes of cashless payment, at 11 per cent each, followed by contactless cards (10 per cent).

The survey also found that payment preferences vary widely across the region. This was attributed to payment acceptance rates, ease of use, perceived safety and hygiene of non-cash payment methods, and the rise of e-commerce. For example, while only 15 per cent of Singaporeans prefer cash payments, a majority (89 per cent) of Cambodians prefer cash.

But when push comes to shove, cash makes up just 26 per cent of payment methods in use in the region. Online wallets account for 17 per cent of transactions, followed by online card use at 16 per cent.

QR codes are quickly rising as payment methods too. While the pick-up rate of this method is low, with regional usage at only 34 per cent, the survey is more optimistic. More than two-thirds (69 per cent) of non-users in the region are interested in this payment method.

The latest Visa Consumer Payment Attitudes survey was conducted from August to September 2020. It collected responses from about 7,500 consumers aged 18 to 65 in Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam, Myanmar and Cambodia.