MasterCard says majority of Malaysians prefer to pay by cash
The entire sales period of 1Malaysia Mega Sales Carnival (1MMSC) 2012 generated US$2.1bil (RM6.40bil) with 22 million transactions via MasterCard, whereby 88.7 per cent by local card holders and the overseas cardholders accounted for the remaining spending, reported by Bernama news agency. The top 5 foreign spenders were Singaporean, American, Australian, Indonesian and British.
Jim Cheah, MasterCard Worldwide Vice-President and Senior Country Manager (Malaysia and Brunei) believed MasterCard will post a positive growth in Malaysia despite the economic slowdown seen in most of the major foreign countries. He said that about 80 per cent of Malaysians preferred to pay by cash instead of using credit or debit cards and there are some rooms for the company to grow when the people have changed their behaviour towards electronic payments as their preferred payment method.
by Alice Lee
