GrabPay names MD to handle SG, MY and PH markets

Grab has appointed Ooi Huey Tyng (pictured) as managing director, GrabPay Singapore, Malaysia, and Philippines. Based in Singapore, Ooi brings on board more than 25 years of experience in senior positions at global banks and leading payments providers.Ooi joins Grab from Visa, where she was the country manager for Singapore and Brunei. During her time, Ooi drove the company’s innovation and digital roadmap as well as the strategic engagement of regional banks headquartered in Singapore. Prior to that, she held leadership roles at DBS, UOB, and Citi among others, where she was responsible for managing retail cards businesses, co-branding and rewards partnerships, as well as engagement with merchants.She reports to Jason Thompson, managing director, GrabPay Southeast Asia, in this newly created role.“Ooi brings deep leadership expertise from some of the region’s premier banks and payments providers. Her experience with our current and potential payments partners will be invaluable as GrabPay moves into its next phase of growth. Millions of people in Singapore, Malaysia and the Philippines are still heavily dependent on cash. Ooi’s skills in forging business partnerships across each country will enable us to bring more merchants and consumers into the cashless future faster,” Thompson said.Ooi added, “It’s an exciting moment to join Grab. There are unique opportunities and challenges in the payment space for each country in Southeast Asia. For instance, even in highly-developed Singapore, more than 20,000 merchants remain primarily cash-based. With GrabPay, we can complement the work of our partners and offer millions of consumers in Singapore, Malaysia, and the Philippines the opportunity to go cashless.”To close out 2017, GrabPay onboarded a total of 1,000 merchants in Singapore, reaching its target a mere two months after launching its in-store and in-restaurant payments service. For 2018, the payments platform will continue to focus on Singapore’s more than 20,000 local, cash-based merchants who will see the most immediate benefits from adopting cashless.In Malaysia, GrabPay was granted the e-money licence by Bank Negara Malaysia, Malaysia’s central monetary authority. As a result, consumers in Malaysia will be able to pay with Grab in restaurants, shops and online, starting in the first half of 2018.End of December, Grab also moved beyond transport in the Philippines to launch its peer-to-peer (P2P) fund transfer feature. In the cash-heavy Philippines, this feature enables Grab consumers to send GrabPay Credits to one another in an instantaneous, simple and secure way.