The ICTF was first introduced by Bank Negara in March 2018 to guide Realtime Retail Payments Platform (RPP). RPP is the service that enables money transfer between parties to be immediate and easy - without the receiver's bank account information. Online banking today still requires the receiver's bank account number.

The framework addresses not only banks but e-wallets too.

@unsplash

The key infrastructure facilitating this transfer of money is the National Addressing Database.

Every person has a phone number and IC number that serves as a unique identifier. Similarly, business entities have company numbers. This unique identifier is registered in the NAD and tied to their respective bank accounts. This allows anyone to receive funds based on their unique identifier.

You can send money to a friend by using the DuitNow service in your bank's mobile app. All you have to do is enter her phone number and amount to be transferred. No account number required. What if she has two phone numbers and multiple bank accounts? She would need to have registered the phone number with the account she chose. So in the NAD, it'll look like this: | Lim Wei Wei | 012-3456789 | Maybank | Account number 707070111 |

In Bank Negara's terms, the phone number is called the Proxy Addressing Service.

You can transfer money with Touch & Go to someone by using phone numbers, so they probably use the NAD too.

Summary

The NAD lets people transfer money to each other using QR codes and phone numbers. It's a more convenient method because there's no account number required.