Hong Leong Bank, JCB, Soft Space drive JCB card use in Malaysia

Sofitel Kuala Lumpur Damansara has begun accepting JCB card payments.

Malaysia’s Hong Leong Bank (HLB), payments company JCB International, and fintech-as-a-service provider Soft Space have partnered to drive JCB card acceptance in the country.

Malaysia expects to welcome 16.1 million international tourists and generate $10.89b in tourist receipts in 2023 as part of its post-pandemic recovery. To capitalise on this, Soft Space and JCBI recently inked an agreement to enable Soft Space to work with local acquirers, such as the HLB, to promote JCB card acceptance in Malaysia.

To start, Sofitel Kuala Lumpur Damansara– a hotel in Kuala Lumpur and one of HLB merchant’s– have begun accepting JCB card payments.

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"As Japanese tourist arrivals in Malaysia begin to ramp up again, we are pleased to be able to enable and promote cross-border payments between Japan and Malaysia via our partners," said Joel Tay, CEO of Soft Space. 

"This merely represents a first step in our ambition to roll out similar agreements in Southeast Asia, boosting JCB Card acceptance and riding on the wave of increasing contactless card payments in the region,” Tay said.