KUALA LUMPUR: GHL Systems Bhd has signed an agreement to provide payment facilitator or third-party acquisition (TPA) services to CIMB Bank Bhd.
Under the agreement, GHL will seek to acquire between 3,000 and 4,000 merchants on behalf of CIMB Bank in the first year.
“Revenue earned by GHL is derived from terminal rental and merchant discount rates, which will continue as long as GHL signs up merchants for card acceptance as a TPA with CIMB Bank,” said GHL in a statement yesterday.
It said the strategy going forward will involve the deployment of conventional electronic data capture terminals, mobile points of sales devices and e-commerce.
GHL will also offer e-pay services, such as mobile prepaid reload and bill payment collection services, to these merchants as value-added services.
“This will be truly unique to GHL, as it will be the only company in Malaysia to be able to offer small and medium enterprise (SME) merchants cashless payment acceptance as well as the ability to earn additional revenue via e-pay products and services,” said GHL.
“CIMB Bank has a strong presence in the smaller-enterprise segment of the SME market and this initiative will enable both CIMB Bank and GHL to increase our penetration into this segment,” said GHL group chief executive officer Raj Lorenz.
He added that the tie-up is also aligned with Bank Negara Malaysia’s objective of increasing cashless payment acceptance points to its target of 800,000 payment devices by 2020.
Meanwhile, CIMB Bank head of consumer banking Datuk Sulaiman Mohd Tahir, in the same statement, said CIMB’s tie-up with GHL is a positive move towards moving in line with the nation’s call to promote economic efficiency by shifting from a cash-heavy society to embracing electronic payments as the main medium of doing business.
“It is vital that we leverage specialised business partners such as GHL, who are focused on this niche area, for a more cost-effective transition. We aim to broaden the accessibility and affordability of e-payment services to different consumer and business segments,” added Sulaiman.
GHL (fundamental: 1.2; valuation: 0.2) closed unchanged at RM1.16 yesterday, with a market capitalisation of RM745.6 million.
This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily, on April 24, 2015.