Malaysia’s first bank-owned unified payment platform helps businesses bring multiple payment channels together, with faster settlement and simpler reconciliation.

For businesses, getting paid is only one part of the equation. Knowing where the money is, when it will reach the bank account and how to reconcile transactions can be just as important, particularly for businesses handling high volumes of digital payments.

Launched by RHB Bank Berhad, RHB Pay is Malaysia’s first bank-owned unified online payment platform, bringing payment collection, settlement and reconciliation onto a single platform. Built on RHB’s banking infrastructure with bank-grade security, it is designed to give businesses greater control over their collections and cash flow.

Digital payments have established themselves as an integral part of modern commerce. Malaysia recorded more than 18 billion electronic payment transactions in 2025, highlighting the growing role of digital payments in how businesses collect and manage money.

For merchants, the proposition is straightforward: accept payments through cards, FPX, DuitNow and e-wallets through one integration, while having a consolidated view of transactions and settlement.

But the move to digital payments can also bring its own set of operational headaches, particularly for mid-sized corporates and small and medium enterprises (SMEs) that have to manage separate systems, logins, settlement files and reconciliation processes across different payment methods. That fragmentation adds friction as businesses shift more volume away from cash handling and its associated costs.

RHB Pay is designed to reduce that fragmentation by bringing the different payment channels into one integration layer. This means merchants do not have to build and maintain separate integrations for each payment method they offer.

The unified platform also simplifies onboarding and verification across payment channels, reducing the time and effort required for merchants to get started. It is also designed to accommodate new digital payment channels as they emerge, without requiring merchants to build another integration each time.

A payment platform’s value does not end when a customer completes a transaction. Settlement is where many merchants feel the biggest strain. How quickly funds reach their accounts can have a direct bearing on working capital and day-to-day cash flow.

With some third-party payment arrangements, funds can take one to five days to reach the merchant’s bank account, depending on the payment method and settlement arrangement. By comparison, RHB Pay is designed to provide real-time or next-day settlement directly into the merchant’s RHB account, giving them faster access to their collections.

For those operating on tight cash cycles, that can mean having funds available sooner for supplier payments, inventory replenishment and other operating expenses.

Reconciliation is another area where payment fragmentation can create additional work. Traditionally, businesses spend considerable time and manual effort matching end-of-day sales across disparate e-wallet portals, card terminals and bank transfers. RHB Pay consolidates these transactions into a standardised report within its portal, which can be reconciled directly against the merchant's bank statement. This gives businesses a single view of their collections, rather than having to pull information from multiple payment platforms and match them manually.

A consolidated view becomes more useful as payment volumes grow, giving businesses greater visibility over their cash position while reducing the administrative work involved in reconciliation.

Security and reliability become increasingly important as more payment collections move online. RHB Pay is built on RHB’s banking infrastructure, operating within the bank’s governance and regulatory framework. This gives merchants added assurance over the handling of their funds and payment data.

RHB Pay also leverages Malaysia’s wider payments infrastructure, including PayNet’s national payment rails such as FPX and DuitNow, alongside technology partners across the payments ecosystem.

The platform’s roadmap will see further use of AI and data analytics, including in areas such as reconciliation, fraud management, cash flow forecasting and financial planning.

For RHB, the strategic opportunity extends beyond payment processing fees.

By bringing merchants’ payment collections into the bank, RHB can deepen its relationship with businesses through the transaction flows that run through their day-to-day operations. These flows can also support the bank’s broader transaction banking proposition, including deposits, working capital financing and other financial solutions.

According to research by CIMB Securities, RHB’s enhanced transaction banking capability could lift the Group’s net interest margin (NIM) by about five basis points over time, equivalent to an estimated RM170 million in additional net interest income.

Rather than focusing solely on generating payment gateway fees, RHB’s core strategy centres on capturing merchant transaction flows to build low-cost, sticky Current Account and Savings Account (CASA) deposits. These transaction-linked deposits are embedded in merchants’ daily cash flow cycles, which can make them stickier than deposits acquired primarily through interest rate pricing.

The ability to better understand businesses’ transaction flows could also support more targeted working capital financing and other banking solutions as businesses grow, while creating opportunities for broader fee income and cross-selling.

CIMB Securities maintains a “Buy” rating on RHB Bank with a target price of RM9.20, citing the potential for the bank to strengthen its CASA franchise and deliver capital-efficient earnings growth, alongside its dividend yield and Common Equity Tier 1 (CET1) capital position.

The immediate benefits are simpler payment collection, faster access to funds and less time spent on reconciliation.

RHB also sees scope to build on this with AI and data analytics, with potential applications in cost management, cash flow planning, fraud management and other operational areas.

The longer-term opportunity is to give businesses greater visibility into the money flowing through their operations, rather than simply providing another channel to accept payments.

Find out how RHB Pay can help your business: http://rhbgroup.com/rhbpay