New system to drive up Touch 'n Go card sales

KUALA LUMPUR: Touch 'n Go Sdn Bhd (TNG) aims to sell up to two million of its new electronic payment cards via a new bus ticketing system (NBTS) and extend its auto reload functions through banks.

CEO Hasni Zarina Khan said the company on average sells some one million cards each year with two million transactions a day.

In six months, it wants to boost its penetration rate to 90 per cent from 70 per cent with the NBTS in 1,200 buses within the RapidKL bus system currently.

"Encouraged by the high acceptance, TNG is looking to drive the penetration rate beyond 70 per cent similar to acceptance rate in major cities with established public transportation system," she said at the launch yesterday.

With the NBTS, TNG cards can be purchased, reloaded and used as fare payment onboard a bus providing a 3-in-1 combined feature for commuters.

Hasni said the company is in talks with several financial institutions to extend its auto reload functions of its Zing cards beyond credit cards.

She said in the future, customers would be able to auto reload the Zing cards with their savings and current accounts as well as debit cards.

Zing cards contain the TNG chip with the credit facility for the purpose of auto reload functions to enable the relevant credit card account to be debited with the amount equal to the auto reload value.

Current Zing cards participating institutions are Hong Leong Bank, Maybank, MBf, EON Bank, Affin Bank, AEON, CIMB and Bank Simpanan Nasional.

TNG has 755,163 Zing cards in circulation via eight participating banks.

Hasni said TNG ambition is to have its card usage move beyond cashless transportation to other retail services.

According to its latest data, TNG has 22.5 million cards in circulation, inclusive of MyKad's with only some four million accounts.

TNG has started a contest from June 20-September 20, offering iPad 2, Samsung Galaxy Mini, movie tickets worth RM120 and reloads vouchers worth RM100.