LEMON BLOG

Starting July 1, bank customers in Malaysia will no longer need to pay the RM1 interbank withdrawal fee when taking out cash from another bank's ATM or Smart Recycler Machine. This means debit cardholders can withdraw money from any participating machine nationwide without worrying about extra charges.

Malaysia's latest corporate earnings season delivered a fairly mixed picture, with banks showing reasonable resilience, property developers reporting uneven results, and selected consumer-facing companies feeling the pressure from softer spending and higher operating costs. While some companies managed to grow profits through stronger margins, better recurring income, or lower taxation, others were weighed down by weaker revenue recognition, higher expenses, lower associate contributions, and margin compression.

Malaysia's shift towards a cashless society is clearly gaining pace. According to Payments Network Malaysia, the country recorded an impressive 8.44 billion digital payment transactions in 2025—another strong sign that cashless payments are no longer just a convenience, but a daily habit for many Malaysians.

Malaysia's push toward a more unified digital identity system just took a noticeable step forward. MyDigital ID has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with a group of banks and fintech players, with the goal of improving how identity authentication works across onboarding and everyday transactions.

If you've been hearing "MyDigital ID" pop up more often lately, this is why: Malaysia is now running a larger Phase 2 "sandbox" (basically, a controlled test environment) to plug MyDigital ID into real banking systems. According to a written parliamentary reply by the Ministry of Finance (MOF), 18 banking institutions have confirmed they're taking part in this second phase.