Nium enables real-time payments in Malaysia

Nium has advanced its services in Malaysia by enabling real-time payments as of Thursday. Through a news release, the digital payments company noted that it is now able to process over 75% of its global transactions in real-time.

The Singapore startup is valued at $2 billion; having doubled its valuation within a span of about one year. While it is a relatively small entity in the multi-billion fintech industry, it has been growing fast since its launch in 2015.

It works with businesses, banks, and payment providers by availing services related to global payments and card issuance. It has its presence in over 190 countries and facilitates real-time payments in more than 100.

In its recent announcement, the company’s co-founder and COO, Pratik Gandhi stated, “more countries are turning to Nium to bring their legacy systems into the modern age. We enable money to move around the world- instantly, easily, and securely…”

Data released by GlobalData showed that in the real-time payments transactions executed in 2021 were 118.3 billion worldwide. The figure highlights a growth of 64.5%. At its current pace, the institution expects the transactions to reach $427.7 billion by 2026.

Notably, the Asia-Pacific region is the most developed real-time payments market across the world. In the past year, Malaysia surpassed Singapore in the amount of real-time payments at 1.1 billion transactions. In comparison, the transactions in Singapore and Thailand were at 256 million and 9.7 billion respectively.  

Nium seeks to expand its presence in this real-time payments hub. In an effort to do so, it has obtained an expanded license in the Asia-Pacific country. The International Remittance Hub (IRH) has been issued by Malaysia’s central bank – Bank Negara Malaysia. As such, the firms on its platform have access to an outbound limit of up to MYR 6 million daily. Besides, they are in control of end-user pricing.

In addition to advancing its operations in Asia-Pacific, Nium has also been seeking to expand in Europe. In April, Co-founder Prajit Nanu stated that the firm is in discussions for a $400 million acquisition of a payments venture.