CONVENIENCE AND CHALLENGES A YOUNG LADY slips into a George Town café and scans the QR code, where the payment is logged in her e-wallet history. Then an elderly uncle arrives, carefully counting out notes from his used leather wallet. Half-joking, half-worried, he asks: “Can still use cash here?” Two wallets meet at the same counter as Penang races towards a cashless future, but everyday encounters with that future remain uneven and deeply socially mediated.
A NATIONAL FRONTRUNNER?
Nationally, Bank Negara Malaysia logged 18.4bil e-payment transactions in 2025 (about 538 e-payments per Malaysian) cumulatively worth RM831bil.[1] In this context, Penang looks like a national front-runner. Indeed, with Touch ’n Go QR codes appearing in George Town’s hawker and heritage streets as early as in 2018, Penang can reasonably claim to have entered the cashless game ahead of most other states. By mid-2021, Digital Penang already reckoned that about 70% of Penangites (roughly 1.4mil people) had downloaded at least one e-wallet application.[2] Today, state agencies report that more than 95% of pay-ments at their counters are cashless: local councils cite 97–98% cashless transactions, while running “Cashless Fridays” to normalise such payments. Digital Penang, the government-linked company tasked with driving this agenda, has primarily done so through partnerships with e-wallet providers and merchant onboarding.
But numbers alone do not tell us how Penangites are living through this shift. For many younger, urban-oriented individuals, cashless payments have become indispensable. Kelly, who runs Chapel Street Cafe, said: “E-wallets are much more convenient especially during busy hours, as they simplify record-keeping and reduce the need to handle large volumes of cash.” Further-more, the mix of local and foreign customers whom she serves expect to use QR codes and card terminals: “For them, Penang feels comfortably aligned with global payment norms.”
This experience, however, is not universal, considering that Penang has one of the oldest age profiles among Malaysia’s states. The Department of Statistics Malaysia (DOSM) estimates that 7.7–8% of Penang’s population (143,805 people) are aged 65 and above, with several of the state’s districts placed in the “ageing” category.[3] Here, enthusiasm for cash-less systems often sits alongside caution. At the Pulau Tikus wet market, a seafood seller, Mr. Lim, recalled how his grandson helped him install an e-wallet application. “Sometimes customers pay that way and it is okay,” he said. “But I still feel safer with cash. If my phone spoils or the app changes, I don’t know what to do.” His concerns are not abstract and are only compounded by media coverage around scams—which are more salient than messaging about consumer protection. The thought of press-ing the wrong button carries real weight when household budgets are measured on a day-to-day basis.
