KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 10 — E-wallets were long seen as a young person’s habit — something for students splitting bills or twenty-somethings ordering food delivery. New data from Ipsos Malaysia’s E-Wallet Landscape 2026 report suggests that story is out of date.

According to the survey of 1,029 Malaysians aged 18-74, conducted in April 2026, the fastest-growing group of e-wallet users last year was not the young.

It was Malaysians aged 35-44, whose usage jumped nine percentage points to 64 per cent, and those 45 and above, up four points to 44 per cent. By contrast, the 25-34 age bracket — traditionally assumed to be the core e-wallet demographic — stayed flat at 65 per cent, while 18-24 year-olds crept up just two points to 64 per cent.

Four years ago, e-wallets skewed heavily young. Today, usage across every adult age band sits within roughly 20 percentage points of each other, with the middle-aged group essentially level with Gen Z and millennials.

Ipsos points to where Malaysians are actually using their wallets as a clue. The strongest growth in usage occasions is not in online shopping — it is in everyday, offline spending: food and beverage outlets, toll and parking payments, and retail purchases.

“Malaysia has moved beyond digital payment adoption to digital payment dependence. For

businesses, being part of consumers' preferred payment ecosystem is increasingly critical to staying relevant,” Ipsos said in its report.

These are precisely the transactions a working, car-owning, family-supporting 40-something does daily — grabbing lunch, paying for parking at the office, buying groceries. As e-wallets embedded themselves into these routine errands, they stopped being a “digital-native” tool and became simply how bills get paid.

The report’s authors describe this directly: e-wallets are “no longer just a younger generation’s payment tool,” but an “everyday habit embraced by Malaysians across different life stages.”

What this means for consumers

For those in their 40s, 50s, or 60s who may still associate e-wallets with their children’s or grandchildren’s spending habits, the data suggests you have plenty of company adopting the technology — and there are practical reasons to keep up:

1. Convenience is now table stakes at toll booths and parking. With cashless lanes expanding, an e-wallet can shave real time off a commute.
2. Trust concerns are being addressed. Among the two leading platforms — Touch ‘n Go eWallet and MAE — safety and reliability scores sit at 77-82 per cent, suggesting the platforms have matured well past their early, glitch-prone days.
3. Wide acceptance removes the old excuse. Both leading wallets now report 76-81 per cent perceived acceptance among users, meaning “not enough places take it” is no longer the compelling argument it used to be.

A word of caution

Wider adoption among older Malaysians also raises the stakes on digital literacy and scam awareness.

As this demographic — often with larger account balances and less exposure to phishing tactics targeting younger digital natives — moves more of its daily spending onto phone-based apps, financial institutions and regulators may need to sharpen consumer education aimed specifically at midlife and older users, not just the young.

The bigger picture, though, is one of normalisation. What began as a convenience for the tech-savvy has become closer to a national habit, according to Ipsos, cutting across income groups, professions, and now, age.