12 June
VISA, the world’s leader in dig-ital payments, announced the people of Myanmar continue to embrace digital payments with increased consumer spending and more merchants accept-ing digital payments across the country.
Total spending on Myan-mar-issued Visa cards grew by 25 per cent in March 2019 when compared to the same period last year, while the number of trans-actions increased by 62 per cent1.
Ms. Lillian Wang, Country Manager for Visa Myanmar said: “We’re pleased to see continued growth in digital payments here in Myanmar as more consum-ers and businesses are realizing the benefits of going cashless. We believe consumer education, the introduction of new payment technologies such as contactless and wider acceptance of digital payments are all contributing to this growth. Visa contactless technology is transforming the way consumers conduct their dai-ly lives and is enabling merchants in traditionally cash-based seg-ment to access a fast and secure digital payments solution.”
The increases correspond to the growing number of mer-chants that accept digital pay-ments, which has risen by 30 per cent2. “In order for the country to fully reap the benefits of digi-tal payments and to continue on its economic growth trajectory, compliance to global rules and standards must be in place, which is the backbone of a sustainably efficient economy,” added Ms. Wang. Visa has taken a proac-tive role in engaging with client banks and government bodies to introduce rules and best practic-es to ensure that proper security measures are in place. The latest engagement included conducting workshops on Anti-Money Laun-dering and Anti-Terrorist Financ-ing. The workshop provided par-ticipants with global and regional trends in anti-money laundering, an overview of Visa’s compliance program, an approach to effec-tive transaction monitoring and best-practice sharing.
“As a global payments tech-nology company that connects consumers, businesses, financial institutions and governments in more than 200 countries around the world, Visa has extensive experience combating money laundering. We are delighted to be able to share our knowledge and hope the workshop will add value and help our clients im-prove operational efficiency and minimize risks in their business thereby enabling businesses and Myanmar economy to thrive,” Ms. Wang added.
The workshop included rep-resentatives from seven banks, namely Asia Green Development Bank, Ayeyarwady Bank, Co-Op-erative Bank, Kanbawza Bank, Myanma Apex Bank, Myanmar Oriental Bank, and United Amara Bank.
1 VisaNet data March 2018 vs March 2019
2 Asia Green Develop-ment Bank, Ayeyarwady Bank, Co-Operative Bank, Kanbawza Bank, Myanma Apex Bank, My-anmar Oriental Bank, and Unit-ed Amara Bank, March 2018 vs March 2019. —GNLM
