He said that in the 12 months up to June, a number of key indicators had shown how people and businesses had adopted online banking to greater effect.

The volume of e-wallet transactions increased 89% to 468 million, and online banking usage improved 36% with 12.1 billion payments made over the same period.

For businesses, registrations for QR payment facilities jumped 57%, with one million sign-ups over the 12 months, he said in his keynote address at the 2021 Malaysian Banking and Finance Summit today.

“Our world has transformed dramatically due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and this has changed the old ways of how we earn a living, shop, learn and play.”

Tengku Zafrul added that financial institutions were expected to continue encouraging the use of online banking and other digital banking applications as the economy reopened further by facilitating the onboarding of merchants to accept QR payments and ensuring affordable fees for vendors.

As the country begins to recover from the pandemic, he said banks would be expected to facilitate lending with accommodative financing plans, provide non-debt based assistance schemes, and support underserved borrowers like micro-enterprises and women entrepreneurs.

On the 2022 Budget, Tengku Zafrul said it would be “expansionary” and focus on the “three R’s” of recovery, resilience, and reform.

“It is through those three lenses that banks and financial institutions – including development financial institutions – will play a critical role moving forward.

“This will be a critical year for Malaysia, a rare window to jumpstart not just an economic recovery, but a recovery of industries, livelihoods, and jobs, especially those hardest hit by the pandemic.”