Today’s deal with RMS Reloads will make it convenient for IOUpay’s BNPL customers to make repayments, effectively pushing it into the mainstream in Malaysia.
High-flying fintech IOUpay (ASX:IOU) has expanded further into its target market Malaysia, after entering into a three-year renewable agreement with payments company, RMS Reloads.
In the deal, RMS Reloads will provide collection agency services that will enable IOUpay customers to make BNPL instalment payments at any merchant across RMS’s extensive national merchant network of more than 10,000 physical points-of-presence in Malaysia.
Up to now, BNPL repayments are mainly done through IOUpay’s customer app, myIOU, which automatically deducts the customer’s credit card or debit card accounts. These are priority payments which are referred to as a “standing order”.
But today’s agreement will provide IOUpay customers with a convenient over-the-counter alternative, where these payments can now be done at any of RMS Reloads’ vast national merchant network.
Over-the-counter payments (also referred to as offline-to-online or ‘O2O’) at convenience stores and supermarkets are particularly popular in Malaysia and South East Asia for customers wanting to make cash payments or past due payments.
A standard low fixed-percentage fee for each transaction amount will be paid to RMS in return for the agency services provided.
“Providing our customers with 10,000 of Malaysia’s most popular store locations with over-the-counter services to make their BNPL payments is an important step in making our BNPL service offering even more accessible and convenient for our customers,” commented IOUpay CEO, Khong Kok Loong.
System integration
System integration work with RMS Reloads will commence this month and is expected to be completed for a launch in June.
The integration will involve an API connection of IOUpay’s merchant app to RMS Reloads’ Bill Payment Counter Collection system.
Once connected, it will enable merchants to scan IOUpay customer QR Codes generated by the MyIOU app, which will be displayed on the customer’s mobile device.
After scanning the QR Code, the instalment will be paid automatically, effectively remitting the offline customer payment to IOUpay online.
RMS Reloads and Razer
RMS Reloads was established 10 years ago, and since then has become one of South East Asia’s largest offline-to-online payment networks with over 1 million physical acceptance points at retail outlets such as 7-Eleven, Starbucks and Tesco Supermarkets.
Currently it has more than 10,000 physical points-of-presence in Malaysia, which means that it can provide over-the-counter services that include thousands of 7-Eleven, 99 Speedmart, and KK MART stores across the country.
The deal today will introduce IOUpay’s BNPL services to RMS Reloads’ substantial ecosystem, in a region where there is still a low adoption of credit cards, but a high adoption of e-wallets amongst the youth.
RMS Reloads’ strength is also backed by its parent company, Razer Inc., who acquired the company in 2018.
Razer is a global Hong-Kong listed company headquartered in San Francisco and Singapore, and is recognized as one of the leading brands for gamers in the USA, Europe and China.
The company’s gaming brand is well recognised amongst global gaming and esports communities, with a fan base of 40 million users.
As Razer’s payments business, RMS Reloads also offers an online payment gateway which is used by popular e-commerce players in SE Asia like Lazada, Shoppee, and Grab.
“The RMS Reloads merchant network represents an infield distribution channel with some of Malaysia and Southeast Asia’s biggest shopping brands. The Razer Fintech Group is a natural fit with IOUpay, which we look forward to building further,” says Khong.
Fast inroads into Malaysia
IOUpay is fast making inroads into the Malaysian market.
Earlier this month, it signed a deal with MYP1, a major payment services provider in Malaysia and Southeast Asia, with over 15,000 card and QR payment acceptance merchants across the country.
That deal followed another agreement it struck in February with EasyStore, which gave IOUpay access to EasyStore’s 20 million merchant transactions a year
The IOUpay share price, meanwhile, has been on fire for the last 12 months, rising from 4 cents to trade at 38c today.
This article was developed in collaboration with IOUpay, a Stockhead advertiser at the time of publishing.
This article does not constitute financial product advice. You should consider obtaining independent advice before making any financial decisions.