Malaysia’s PM Anwar: E-Wallets Must Repay Scam Victims Within 7 Days if Fraud Safeguards Fail

TLDR

• Negligent e-wallet issuers in Malaysia must fully compensate scam victims within seven working days under a new Bank Negara Malaysia rule.
• PM Anwar Ibrahim confirmed the policy in a parliamentary written reply on 1 July, with a fresh reminder carried by NST on 30 July.
• Compensation triggers when a provider fails BNM’s required fraud safeguards — even if the user was partly at fault.
• New safeguards include a “kill switch” to freeze accounts, single-device authentication, cooling-off periods and dedicated fraud hotlines.
• BNM’s parallel National Fraud Portal automates fund-tracing through NSRC, with RM1.2 billion in fraudulent transactions blocked in 2025 alone.
• Touch ‘n Go eWallet, Boost, GrabPay, ShopeePay, MAE, BigPay and Setel all fall under the framework covering more than 24 million Malaysian users.

Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who also holds the finance minister portfolio, told the Dewan Rakyat that eligible e-wallet providers must fully compensate scam victims within seven working days of receiving a complaint — provided the providers failed to comply with Bank Negara Malaysia’s mandatory fraud-prevention measures. The rule applies even in cases where losses were partly caused by user negligence, shifting the burden squarely onto payment service providers that did not meet the regulator’s bar.

Anwar’s written reply, responding to MP Roy Angau Gingkoi’s question on strengthening protection for e-wallet scam victims, was first reported on 1 July by The Straits Times and The Sun Malaysia. The New Straits Times carried a fresh reminder of the same policy on 30 July, underlining that the government expects the industry to keep delivering on the new framework.

What the New Safeguards Look Like

BNM has bundled several concrete controls into the requirement. E-wallet issuers and banks must roll out stronger transaction authentication, enforce a cooling-off period before high-risk transfers go through, and bind user accounts to a single registered device. Providers are also required to operate dedicated fraud hotlines and ship a “kill switch” feature that lets users freeze a compromised account in seconds.

For Malaysian users, that translates into a clear escalation path if something goes wrong. The National Scam Response Centre, a multi-agency body, can now trace and freeze stolen funds through the National Fraud Portal — an automated system that replaced manual handoffs and cut the time between detection and intervention. Where the investigation itself drags beyond the prescribed window, banks must extend financial assistance to victims in the meantime.

What Malaysian E-Wallet Users Should Expect

Touch ‘n Go eWallet, Boost, GrabPay, ShopeePay, MAE, BigPay and Setel all sit inside the framework as eligible e-money issuers, covering more than 24 million verified users across Malaysia. Anyone holding a balance in those apps now has a statutory path to recover funds if their provider failed to enable the safeguards above.

Victims who disagree with a bank’s or e-wallet’s liability decision can escalate to the Financial Market Ombudsman Service for an independent review. Anwar told parliament the rule has already delivered measurable results: a 26 per cent jump in victims receiving full or partial compensation after full implementation, and RM1.2 billion in fraudulent transactions prevented during 2025 alone.

Our Take

Malaysia is quietly becoming one of the more aggressive regulatory environments for digital wallets in Southeast Asia. The 7-day liability rule does something the industry has resisted for years: it forces payment providers to internalise the cost of weak fraud controls instead of passing it to users. For the big e-wallets — TNG, Boost, GrabPay and ShopeePay — that means investment in real-time fraud detection, better device-binding and faster customer support, all of which should show up in app updates over the coming quarters.

The MY angle here is straightforward: every Malaysian who keeps RM500 or RM5,000 in an e-wallet now has a clear, regulator-backed path to getting it back if the platform screws up. That is a meaningful upgrade in consumer protection for a country where cashless transactions hit 18.4 billion in 2025. Readers should treat the policy as a green light to file a complaint the moment something feels off — the seven-day clock only starts once the provider receives it.

Source

• The Straits Times — Negligent Malaysian e-wallet providers must compensate scam victims within 7 working days: Anwar
• The Sun Malaysia — E-wallet providers must compensate scam victims within 7 days if fraud safeguards are not met: PM
• New Straits Times — Anwar: E-wallet issuers must repay scam victims if fraud safeguards fail