The Cashless Society is a high-impact national initiative designed to accelerate the growth of Malaysia’s digital economy. Cashless or e-payments refers to digital payments using methods, which include but not limited to e-wallets, DuitNow QR codes, credit cards, debit cards, and mobile banking. This transition to cashless payments is recognised as a pivotal step in advancing the nation’s digitalisation efforts.

The Cashless Society Initiative, launched in 2022, aims to empower rural and underserved communities—mainly the elderly, youth, disabled, and traders—to adopt digital payments and transactions (e.g., QR codes, credit/debit cards). This initiative accelerates Malaysia’s digital economy for a sustainable future and aligns with Bank Negara Malaysia’s aim of achieving 400 e-payment transactions per capita by 2026.

The initiative ensures widespread and sustainable adoption of cashless payments, primarily through policy intervention of business licenses, where businesses are encouraged to adopt cashless payments. Complementing this are on-ground awareness campaigns guided by four pillars: Financial and Digital Literacy, Security and Safety, Income Opportunity and Capacity Building. These campaigns are implemented through programmes like Cashless@NADI, Cashless @ State, and Cashless Carnival, leveraging NADI centres to enhance accessibility, connectivity, and proactive outreach.

With a five-year nationwide plan, the initiative has been rolled out in four states—Melaka, Johor, Pahang, and Negeri Sembilan—covering over 80 community touchpoints and engaging 12 strategic partners, including banks and e-wallet providers such as Federal Land Development Activity (FELDA), Bank Negara Malaysia, Agensi Kaunseling dan Pengurusan Kredit (AKPK), Payment Network Malaysia (Paynet), Touch ‘n Go Digital, Maybank, Bank Islam, Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN), Sakupay, Setel, Wavpay, and TM Unifi.

• Cashless @ NADI
• Cashless @ State
• Cashless Carnival @ NADI

1. Financial & Digital Literacy: Ensuring that everyone, regardless of their socioeconomic status, has access to financial services. It also includes awareness on effective and informed decisions.
2. Security & Safety: An awareness on current challenges use of digital transactions, and to promote secure use of digital transactions, fraud prevention, and data privacy.
3. Income Opportunity: To generate income within digital realm.
4. Capacity Building: To conduct capacity building programmes and training for digital transactions.

The Cashless Society Initiative aligns with the national policies such as MyDigital, which aims to position Malaysia as a digitally driven nation, and Bank Negara Malaysia’s Financial Sector Blueprint 2022-2026, which targets accelerated digital payment adoption. The blueprint aims to achieve a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of over 15% in e-payments per capita and reach 400 transactions per capita by the end of 2026. Through this alignment, the Cashless Society Programme contributes significantly to national objectives, enhancing Malaysia’s competitiveness in the global digital economy.