The new product, that is a part of a collaboration with CIMB Bank Bhd, will complement TNGD eWallet’s existing investment offerings to provide users with an accessible entry point starting from RM10 with no limitation on the amount of investment, as well as no transaction fees.

TNGD chief executive officer Alan Ni said he was confident of achieving the target for a number of reasons as TNGD has more than 21 million verified users.

“We serve all ranges of users, so the most important aspect here is access.

“We have launched investment products before that did very well,” he told reporters during the launch of e-Mas here yesterday.As Malaysia’s largest integrated financial technology player, TNGD sought to be inclusive, he added.

“From experience, the numbers tell us that as long as we launch a product that can reach the masses and has a flexibility on how much they can invest, we are quite confident in garnering users,” he said.

As a test-run, TNGD launched the pilot programme a week ago, which saw over 40,000 users investing in e-Mas.

Ni said this accounted for 80% of its target and is confident that e-Mas will become the largest gold investment portfolio in terms of users.

CIMB Bank Bhd group wholesale banking co-chief executive office Chu Kok Wei said the bank would act as the liquidity provider for e-Mas, while leveraging on its capabilities in risk management and digital treasury solutions.

He said the app would have live prices that are streamed so users can check the price of gold whenever they wish.

“The bank will be the engine powering the live prices for buying and selling gold and for risk management, as well as because gold prices do tend to fluctuate. It’s a financial product, so we provide access to all that,” he noted.

TNGD chief financial services officer Desmond Teoh said e-Mas lets users invest in digital gold that is not redeemable into physical gold, but the company is exploring adding physical redeemable gold products in the future.

“We will look at the second phase in the next 12 months. However, we have actually found out that even if the product is backed by physical gold bars, the redemption rates are extremely low. The banks have also said the same,” he said.

Teoh added that with physical gold bars, there are charges for redemption together with insurance costs and other relevant fees.

“So we will need to consider carefully and look at what the market wants first before deciding on this.”

The event was launched by Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo who said the digital economy is expected to contribute 25.5% to Malaysia’s gross domestic product by the end of 2025.

The digital economy contributed 23.5% at the end of 2022.

“If we keep encouraging the adoption and digital initiatives for businesses, it will be one way to increase our target.

“I think we can surpass that target set for 2025.

“The fact remains that we are moving towards an Asean that will be a lot stronger.

“From 2025 to 2030, trade in Asean is expected to hit US$2 trillion,” he said.