Payments Network Malaysia has partnered with Paywatch in order to implement an automated and flexible payroll service for its employees and drive financial inclusion. Following this announcement, PayNet employees are set to have instant access to their earned wages, which will provide them with improved flexibility, stability, and control over their finances.

In addition, PayNet will focus on eliminating the transaction fees for its employees when they are leveraging the Paywatch platform. The companies will combine their suite of services and products in order to bridge the financial gap that exists among low-income populations, drive financial inclusion, and meet the needs, preferences, and demands of customers. The partnership is a part of PayNet’s Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) plans and efforts, with the overall aim to improve the welfare benefits of its employees and to ensure the financial empowerment of its workforce.

The ESG strategy is currently focused on the process of optimising the development process of SDG-aligned fintechs, startups, and digitalisable social enterprises. PayNet’s recent strategy of development Malaysia’s national payments network and provider of financial market utilities PayNet had multiple partnerships and product launches in the last couple of months, covering several geographic areas around the world. In August 2023, global payment facilitator Alipay+ announced its collaboration with PayNet in order to provide inbound and outbound Malaysian customers and travellers with improved payment solutions.

Throughout this strategic deal, the firms aimed to expand the cross-border payment acceptance at 1.8 merchants and traders in the region. The first launch was set to consist of five Asian e-wallets (including AlipayHK, Kakao Pay, GCash, and TrueMoney), with plans to be followed by more in the following months. Clients and users were enabled to leverage cashless payment methods when they travelled to Malaysia with Alipay+ by scanning the DuitNow QR, Malaysia’s National QR Standard that was operated by PayNet.

The partnership also enabled businesses and merchants to accept real-time payments in a secure and efficient way, from clients of different participating banks, e-wallet operators, and financial institutions by using a unified QR code. Earlier in the same month, PayNet teamed up with UnionPay International in order to enable cross-border QR code linkage to its clients. According to the press release published at the time, the companies signed an agreement to facilitate cross-border QR code linkage and to enable the full acceptance of the UnionPay App (the Chinese-mainland, Hong Kong, and Macao versions), as well as the Chinese-mainland bank applications which were connected to the UnionPay App network payment platform at the QR traders in the region of Malaysia.

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