By Vanessa Gomes
This article first appeared in Digital Edge, The Edge Malaysia Weekly on May 11, 2026 – May 17, 2026
Link to article: Financing: Solving the gig credit conundrum
For the 1.2 million gig workers in Malaysia, social mobility remains a challenge, especially since this group lacks visibility in the eyes of traditional financial institutions. Without regular pay slips or a predictable income stream, the “probability of default” models used by commercial banks often flag gig workers as high risk, regardless of their actual earnings.
Parliament passed the Gig Workers Act 2025, which came into full effect on March 31 this year, mandating that gig workers have the right to request and receive pay slips or income statements from hiring entities.
While the act is a first step towards formalising the gig segment, CGC Digital Sdn Bhd, the digital arm of Credit Guarantee Corp Malaysia Bhd (CGC), says it is working to build a more cohesive financial ecosystem for the growing gig workforce.
CGC Digital’s strategy centres on closing the gap in how financiers understand new earning models. Last year, it launched imGIG, a platform that targets three recurring challenges faced by gig workers — irregular income, lack of financial protection and difficulty accessing finance.
Sign-ups came in quickly, pointing to a workforce that is digitally savvy but underserved in key areas of support. While delivery riders make up a large share of the registrants, the data also show a significant number of contract-based professionals in IT and professional services.
“Over the past few years, as we see this segment grow … there really is limited institutional understanding in terms of how this segment actually earns, manages cash flow and interacts with financial services,” explains CEO Yushida Husin, adding that imGIG was designed to understand work patterns and financial behaviours at the ecosystem level.
“Hence, when we want to curate products, it’s really a different journey because the ‘rider’ persona is very much different from the professional services and IT services persona,” she says.
CGC is 78.65% owned by Bank Negara Malaysia and 21.35% by commercial banks in the country. Its fintech arm, CGC Digital, is mandated to support micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) and gig workers through digital solutions. Its stated goal is bankability, as the lack of a banking history or a stable employment record has kept gig workers invisible to financiers.
“In the past, pay slips were basically a proxy to your income and your outflow. In the gig world, this proxy is broken,” says Yushida.
“We want to provide digital solutions that will benefit this segment, whether it is from an educational or financial literacy angle. When the data and credit assessment is possible and makes sense [to service this segment], we will work with financiers to provide financing for them. It’s just the starting point for us.”
To address the gap, CGC Digital is turning to alternative data — transaction volumes, sales records and utility data — to build a more accurate picture of a worker’s financial health. Yushida says CGC Digital currently works with a range of financiers, from banks to fintech companies, and is improving collaboration between them to offer solutions to gig workers.
The challenge, she says, is that different platforms and gig workers operate differently, and catering to this diversity requires deeper understanding.
“Some gig workers are okay where they are but some open their own companies and have their own structures within it. And interestingly, professional services form quite a major segment, not just riders. So, in terms of documentation, for example, how do you communicate it to the worker?”
CGC Digital plans to roll out a minimum viable product this year and is still shaping it based on feedback from its platform partners. Yushida says the company is in talks with several platform operators that are working on financial solutions for gig workers.
“The industry needs an outfit that can connect the dots, so we thought that we could get the ball rolling through collaboration and integrating multiple parts of the ecosystem, which includes working with players, financiers and others in the system,” she says.
“To nail down what the solution is, we are working with partners but it’s a phased approach. Definitely by this year, we want to see something that is meaningful for those who have registered. I cannot solve the whole thing on my own because everybody holds different parts of the puzzle.”
Technology, enables better financial products and solutions
Yushida says there are data points within gig platforms that can be used to curate a worker’s and a business’ financial profile, such as transaction volume and sales. Essentially, from a financial perspective, it takes more than a single data point to prove a person’s creditworthiness.
“Some fintech players are testing the viability of other data points, like platform data and utility data. The credit assessment to determine the creditworthiness of gig workers is still quite challenging, even for ourselves, when we work with financiers as the guarantee front,” she says.
Technology is central to that effort. Yushida says artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) are needed to interpret the large volume of “thin-file” data points generated by gig activities, with patterns analysed to support modelling.
“Probability of default is important but, to get to that, AI and machine learning are very important to come up with a model that works,” she explains.
“For the riders, one model might fit. For the drivers, another model might fit. This is where we need to make sense of the data and develop models using different statistical techniques.”
With model governance, bias monitoring and explainability controls in place, CGC Digital aims to shorten the data-sifting process and develop standardised algorithms to use with financing partners.
For now, Yushida says the path ahead is not fixed as CGC Digital will be working with different ecosystem partners that must cater to different needs.
Gig Workers Act a good first step, but more needed to support financing
While some views the Gig Workers Act 2025 as the final answer to worker protection, Yushida sees it as a starting point and a useful proxy for financial discipline. She says the act’s provision on the right to request a pay slip is particularly significant for credit assessment.
“Pay slips are a good start because that gives financiers a clearer, more consistent starting point,” Yushida notes. However, she adds that it will not be the sole factor in determining credit worthiness and financiers will still look at income patterns and commitments over time.
Similarly, the mandatory Social Security Organisation (Socso) contributions under the act provide a new data point.
“Socso participation shows a worker’s financial discipline and also the consistency of their payments. This also allows industry players like CGC Digital to build the financial muscle needed for long-term sustainability,” she explains.
CGC Digital does not plan to compete with platform operators such as Grab or Lalamove, Yushida says. Instead, it sees its role as coordinating across the ecosystem. “I cannot solve the whole ecosystem because everybody holds different parts of the puzzle. The company’s role is to connect the dots between fintech players, financiers and the gig platforms themselves.”
One of the most complex challenges in this orchestration is data, specifically data portability, security and consent. For an ecosystem to work, a worker’s data must be able to move securely from a delivery platform to a credit assessment tool and finally to a bank, all while remaining compliant with the Personal Data Protection Act (PDPA) and Bank Negara Malaysia’s Risk Management in Technology (RMIT) standards.
“The data owner must [give consent] before [the data is transferred] from one institution to another,” Yushida says.
Yushida also points to the concept of a gig identity, which is a centralised, portable digital profile that lets a worker carry their credit reputation from one platform to another.
As CGC Digital prepares to roll out its products this year, Yushida says the younger generation is already moving away from the “one employer for life” model, choosing instead to “work for a few masters” across multiple digital outfits.
“Now is the time to actually crack the code. The gig economy is no longer a peripheral side hustle but a major pillar of the future Malaysian economy,” she says.
CGC Digital says it is combining the new legal framework under the Gig Workers Act with AI-based credit assessment in a bid to ensure that workers who choose flexibility are not cut off from financial services.
“At least, we’re moving somewhere,” Yushida says.
