Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd. expects to issue more than 500,000 of its newly launched Shariah-compliant Visa-branded debit cards by the end of this year, a spokesperson for the Kuala Lumpur-based bank tells PaymentsSource. The bank began issuing the card on March 1.
The EMV chip-and-PIN card is the bank’s first network-branded debit card, according to the spokesperson. The bank thus far has issued about 30,000 of the cards, which, according to Islamic banking laws, may not be used for gambling purposes or to purchase alcohol, tobacco, pork or sex-related items.
The bank says it issues more than 2.5 million ATM cards in Malaysia. Internal research showed that those cardholders were using most of the funds they withdrew at ATMs on retail purchases, so the institution decided to offer a card they could use to make purchases wherever Visa is accepted, the spokesperson says.
“We saw that for every 100 ringgits [US$33 or 23.5 euros] a person withdrew, he spent on 63 ringgits on making retail purchases,” he says. “The debit card launch will let our savings and current account customers save on going to the ATM repeatedly.”
