JOHOR BAHRU – June 22, 2022 —Travelling between Malaysia and Singapore is set to become easier for the daily commuters who will soon be able to tap their Visa contactless cards to ride on Causeway Link buses. With cross-border commute gaining momentum, Visa and Handal Indah recognise the importance of enabling consumers with a seamless and convenient payment experience when they take public transportation.
In partnership with Handal Indah Sdn Bhd (which operates Causeway Link), the largest public bus service provider in Johor Bahru, Visa will introduce the first-of-its-kind open-loop contactless payments acceptance on more than 100 Causeway Link buses travelling cross-border. The solution has been piloted on three selected local routes since September 2021 and this will be rolled out to more routes by Q2 this year. In tandem with Causewaylink's cashless payment initiative, the solution will first be enabled for cross border bus services between Malaysia and Singapore, and at later phase will be enabled for local routes operated by Causeway Link within Johor Bahru including the myBAS SBST programme. Approximately 400 contactless payment terminals will be installed and all Causeway Link buses will eventually be powered with contactless acceptance.
Ng Kong Boon, Country Manager for Visa Malaysia said, “This is the first initiative of its kind for Visa to transform the payment experience on public buses travelling across different countries and this is extremely timely given opening of borders between Singapore and Malaysia. At Visa, we are working with our partners to increase contactless payments acceptance for different use cases so more people can benefit from this convenient, seamless and secure payment solution.”
“Contactless payments are gaining momentum in Malaysia. Today, Malaysia is one of the fastest growing countries in Asia Pacific in terms of contactless penetration. Monthly contactless transactions have tripled in the last three years and contactless payments penetration is close to 70 per cent now. In Singapore, nine in 10 Visa cardholders are using contactless payments so we believe this solution will benefit consumers from both countries. Enabling open loop contactless acceptance for transit is one of the key steps to bring us closer to becoming a smart city,” he added.
Causeway Link is currently having its own cashless payment system since 2012 and the introduction of contactless acceptance is one of the initiatives that the company is doing to promote going cashless. The open-loop contactless acceptance by Visa will be an additional payment option for Causeway Link commuters to pay their bus fare within Johor as well as for cross-border commuting.
Visa’s Consumer Payment Attitudes Study found that close to 90 percent of Malaysians are supportive of introducing contactless payments for public transportation to help promote electronic payments usage in the country. In addition, more than half of Malaysians believe that public transportation payments will go fully cashless in the near future.
Lim Han Weng, Director for Handal Indah Sdn Bhd said, “Our commuters already spend a lot of time on the road daily, and we want to make their life easier. Open payments and a more seamless experience is one of the initiatives that we have adopted for commuter convenience. Commuters on our buses will benefit from faster boarding time and easier transfer to other services.”
“With our move towards contactless payments, we hope to introduce additional benefits in the future, such as a commuter loyalty programme with participating merchants that will enable the bundling of other services. We hope with the introduction of more conveniences and benefits, many more commuters will make public transport their travel mode of choice,” he added.
