Ant-backed e-wallet Touch ‘n Go launches digital personal loan facility

Touch ‘n Go (TNG) Group, a Malaysia-based payment firm that is backed by Jack Ma’s Ant Group Co, announced Friday the launch of GOpinjam, an inclusive digital personal loan proposition available through TNG eWallet.

This marks TNG eWallet’s first digital lending solutions offering, having previously already launched financial services propositions in investments and insurance, TNG said in a statement.

Accessed through the TNG eWallet and delivered fully electronically, GOpinjam offers personal loans from as low as RM100 to a maximum of MYR10,000 ($2376). The repayment period for these loans can range from one week to one year, with no hidden fees of early settlement charges.

To further promote inclusion and accessibility to as many people as possible, potential borrowers will require a minimum monthly income of only RM800 to gain access to GOpinjam.

GOpinjam is developed in partnership with Malaysian bank CIMB Bank Berhad and employs differentiated product design and delivery mechanisms to ensure best-in-class user journey and experience. The credit underwriting process is also differentiated, built using the best of both data sets, that of the credit bureau and also eWallet spend data – resulting in greater accessibility for the under-banked segment. For example, this is the first lending offering that would allow users to borrow from as low as MYR100 ($23.76), with CIMB Bank’s e-Zi Tunai Personal Loan product which has been approved by Malaysian regulator Bank Negara Malaysia.

“This is a true market first. We researched the landscape thoroughly before building GOpinjam and I feel we’ve come up with a proposition that delivers significant value to our users, at the same time address the pain points of current personal lending propositions. We’re so pleased to have been able to put this together. We will take feedback post launch and continue to improve with the goal of making this the go-to product for this segment,” said Effendy Shahul Hamid, Group Chief Executive Officer, TNG Group.

“The financial inclusion element was always at the forefront of our thinking, and we expect GOpinjam to be available to those who otherwise would not have been able to access formal credit facilities. We’ve managed to get this done on the back of a ‘win-win’ partnership mentality between TNG and CIMB Bank – leveraging each other’s strengths in credit underwriting and wealth of data to bring the most relevant personal credit solution to underserved segments,” he added.

Updating on the other key financial services development launched by TNG, he added that TNG’s GO+ micro-investment proposition which was launched in 2021 has already 2.25 million users.

At the same time, on the insurance side, he said TNG contributed to 31 percent of the Perlindungan Tenang Voucher Programme (a national insurance initiative) by the government of Malaysia.

“CIMB is proud to support GOpinjam through our CIMB e-Zi Tunai Personal Loan, a fully inclusive proposition targeted at underserved segments, anchoring on a pure-play eWallet- bank partnership. This development is also in line with our long-term strategy and intent for the TNG Group, and to allow it to develop into one of Malaysia’s leading non-bank digital financial services providers. We believe GOpinjam also addresses the government’s push towards a more cashless and inclusive society, an area that both CIMB Group and TNG Group fully support,” said Abdul Rahman Ahmad, Group Chief Executive Officer of CIMB Group.

TNG Group is Malaysia’s financial-technology enterprise with a key focus in the country’s transportation ecosystems and platform-based payments infrastructure. It comprises the service offerings of Touch ‘n Go Sdn Bhd (TNG), a wholly owned subsidiary of CIMB Group and TNG Digital Sdn Bhd (TNGD), a joint venture between TNG and Ant Group, parent company of Alipay, China’s largest digital payments platform.

Established in 2017, TNGD is the owner and operator of TNG eWallet which has over 16 million registered users in Malaysia. Combining TNG’s strong domestic brand, dominance in toll, transit and parking use cases and nationwide user base, together with Ant’s deep domain expertise and leading the development of open platforms for technology-driven inclusive financial services, the TNG eWallet provides financial services and payments services to both retail users and small to mid-sized businesses, across physical and online infrastructure.

CIMB is one of ASEAN’s leading banking groups and Malaysia’s second largest financial services provider, by assets. Listed on Malaysia’s stock exchange, it offers consumer banking, commercial banking, wholesale banking, transaction banking, Islamic banking and asset management products and services.

Headquartered in Kuala Lumpur, the group is present in all 10 ASEAN nations (Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, Cambodia, Brunei, Vietnam, Myanmar, Laos and Philippines). Beyond ASEAN, it has market presence in China, Hong Kong, India, South Korea, the United States and United Kingdom. It has one of the most extensive retail branch networks in ASEAN with 630 branches and around 33,000 employees as at 31 December 2021.

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