KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 7): Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has introduced an enhanced settlement system dubbed Rentas+, which enables round-the-clock interbank settlement as part of efforts to reduce credit and settlement risks from the surge in retail instant payments.

The enhancement to the country's existing real-time gross settlement system Rentas allows continuous interbank funds transfer and settlement 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Rentas+ also facilitates settlement of retail payments immediately after completion, instead of twice a day — a process that carries credit exposure between banks.

The enhancement comes amid rapid growth in retail payments, with daily transaction volume and value surging 49% and 22% respectively since 2024.

“Rentas+ strengthens the resilience of Malaysia’s financial market infrastructure, while providing a secure, scalable, and a flexible settlement platform for future innovations,” said Bank Negara governor Datuk Seri Abdul Rasheed Ghaffour in a statement.

“It also highlights BNM’s commitment to positioning Rentas as a catalyst and enabler for innovation in financial markets,” he added.

To allow continuous transfer, BNM introduced an automatic liquidity facility that operates round the clock via repurchase agreements and sell and buy-back agreements.

Rentas+ also settles DuitNow transactions — including fund transfers, QR payments and e-commerce payments — on a gross basis, with Payments Network Malaysia transmitting transactions to Rentas+ for settlement immediately after completion.

The system is built in-house using modern cloud technology, BNM said.

It seeks to modernise the national payment infrastructure which was first launched in 1999 as the first real-time gross settlement system in Asean to offer continuous settlement.

Rentas processed RM73.63 trillion worth of transactions in 2024 — about 45 times Malaysia’s GDP — and today holds the world’s largest sukuk depository at US$300 billion, while ranking among Asia’s top five bond depositories.