Instarem Launches in Malaysia — The Story Behind
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In Malaysia, the remittance or money transfer market has shown immense growth in recent years mainly due to two reasons — increased international migration and robust economic growth. The growing presence of multinational corporations and an increasing rate of urbanization in Malaysia have made the scope of international remittance even more prominent in the country.
Malaysia is primarily an outward-focused remittance country with an outward international remittance flow of about $3 billion in 2016. The top 5 countries that receive a large share of remittances from the country are Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand, China and India.
As a technology-friendly state, Malaysia is in the early phase of a fintech revolution and our Malaysian Money Service Business license gives us access to the largest banked population in Asia by percentage.
According to a PWC report released in November 2016,
- 42% of Malaysian Financial Institutions think customers are ready to embrace FinTech
- 47% of Malaysian Financial Institutions say they have placed FinTech at the heart of their strategy
- 59% of Malaysian Financial Institutions are up against the differentiation and cost-effectiveness of the Fintech Players
- One of the key areas of disruption is Fund Transfer & Payments
These factors provided for not only the perfect opportunity but also all the reasons for us to ride the fintech wave in Malaysia!
We started the process by applying for regulatory approval in early 2017. Bank Negara Malaysia is known for being a thorough regulator when it comes to issuing Money Service Business licenses. After a detailed licensing process, IntaReM received an approval from the Bank Negara Malaysia in November, 2017 and were all set to roll out our Malaysian operations.
While currently we are operating out of a co-working location in Kuala Lumpur’s Central Business District, we will move to a full-fledged new office in the upcoming months.
On November 28, having set a high benchmark for transparency and cost-efficiency in the remittance industry in Singapore, Australia and Hong Kong; we forayed into Malaysia. The mission however stays unaffected — to make international Fund Transfer & Payments transparent, convenient and cost-efficient for individuals and businesses alike.
We are now live with our operations in Malaysia and are all set to offer live mid-market FX rates and charge just 0.6% compared to 2 to 3% charged by banks and other Money Transfer Operators.
In the words of our Chief Business Officer, Pratik Gandhi, “InstaReM hopes to collaborate closely with consumers and financial institutions to offer the best product solutions to its customers in Malaysia and across the world. We want to drive the adoption rate of technological innovations across both businesses as well as individual consumers,”
So here we are, to introduce Malaysia to the Instarem Money Transfer Experience with Real Time Fx Rates, No Hidden Charges, Fast Transfers and Easy Sign Up.
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