The Muamalat Newsletter Vol.1 2023

FEM Newsletter | June 2023 60 Introduction Financial transactions in the digital age have shifted from traditional to digital systems. With the proliferation of smartphones and the internet, cashless and contactless payments via mobile payment system such as smartphone are becoming more popular. One of the cashless and contactless mobile payment methods available today is Quick Response (QR) codes payment. A QR code is a two-dimensional scannable code that has a similar function to the traditional barcode found on many products. It is a type of barcode that can be easily read by a digital device and that stores information as a series of pixels in a square grid. Transactions can be completed by scanning the QR code provided by merchants after downloading a server- based digital wallet application. Historically, the QR code was invented in 1994 by the Japanese company Denso Wave (Coleman, 2011). It was developed in the automotive industry to track vehicle parts during production (Mishra & Mathuria, 2017). The QR code has only really become established in the era of smartphones. Today, the application of the QR code has been expanded and now also serves as a means of payment. In Malaysia, QR code for cashless payment was offered by Maybank in 2016 under the name Maybank QR Pay (Kee et al., 2021). The aim is to simplify and speed up traditional cash payments. Customers can make free payments with this method by simply scanning their mobile device and entering the code. Since its introduction, cashless and contactless mobile payments have been slow to catch on in Malaysia. But the advent of COVID-19 in 2019 has inevitably accelerated the country’s digital transformation. Malaysians are being forced to switch to mobile payments to curb the spread of the virus. As the country envisions towards a more digitally connected economy and a cashless nation, the government is promoting cashless payments through concerted efforts and timely initiatives. Among the initiatives, for example, is the e-Tunai Rakyat programme. Under this programme, Malaysians aged 18 and above who earn less than RM100,000 a year can get an e-credit of RM30 through one of the e-wallet applications. Over time, Malaysians are becoming more familiar with the use of QR codes for many activities. According to the QRTIGER database, Malaysia is among the top ten countries with the highest scanning activity in the first quarter of 2022 (Ricson, 2023). Disdain this, the adoption of QR codes in this country is still at an early stage (Hajazi et al., 2021; Salim & Razak, 2022). The main reasons why the majority of Malaysian smartphone users do not use mobile payment apps, including mobile payments with QR codes, are lack of knowledge, confidence or skills, and preference for cash and card payments (Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission [MCMC], 2021). This article describes the mobile payment habits of Malaysian university students using QR codes. Quick Response (QR) CodeMobile Payment Usage Habits Among University Students Authors: Syabil Nazhan Ahd.Moess & Dr. Wan Rasyidah Wan Nawang