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.