Last week, I spent a few days in Malaysia for a friend’s wedding and for a short drive around the country’s western coast. This was my first time in Malaysia since the start of the COVID pandemic. Although the purpose of my trip was primarily for leisure, I couldn’t help but notice the interesting dynamic of Malaysia’s evolving payment ecosystem. Card penetration is still low and will likely remain so The first thing I noticed was that many small merchants still do not accept card payments. Although card payments are convenient for both merchants and consumers, there is a frictional cost involved with card payments for merchants. The cost of accepting card payments includes a fixed transaction fee per transaction and a variable fee based on the size of the payment which can add up to 3% of the total amount collected. In addition, merchants need to pay for the hardware to be able to accept card payments...