Malaysia’s digibank race heats up: 3 things to watch

Dan Lain-Lain (Malay for “and others”) is a weekly column by TIA journalist Emmanuel Samarathisa that dissects the goings-on in the Malaysia tech scene but with a heavy mix of current affairs, policy and politics. Click here to read past articles.

Malaysia’s digital banking race is heating up. ‘Tis the year for consortia to roll out their products, anyway.

Bank Negara Malaysia is expected to keep a close eye on the country’s digital banks when they launch this year. / Photo credit: Wikimedia Commons

Here’s a quick recap: In May 2022, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) announced five consortia for its maiden conventional and Islamic digital banking licenses. The winners are:

Conventional

• Boost Holdings and RHB
• Grab-Singtel and Kuok Brothers
• YTL Digital Capital and Sea

Islamic

• Aeon Financial Services, Aeon Credit Service, and MoneyLion
• KAF Investment Bank, Jirnexu, MoneyMatch, and Carsome

The lineup came on the back of a competitive bidding round that included the Malaysian staples of lobbying and alleged political interference. BNM, however, stood its ground as the country’s central bank and delivered a credible and diverse list.

I won’t go into specifics for each consortium since I have written about that last year. What we know now is that all of them are expected to be launching their digibanks sometime this year, with most looking at the fourth quarter.

To that end, Grab, for instance, has embarked on a hiring spree for its digibank arm.

The female chiefs

Firstly, it seems that at least four out of the five consortia have picked strong female banking veterans or agency chiefs.

Aeon appointed Raja Teh Maimunah. She was AmBank’s wholesale banking managing director prior to becoming Aeon’s digital bank CEO. She is also on the board of Retirement Fund Inc., Malaysia’s pension fund for civil servants.

Grab-Singtel’s pick is Lai Pei Si. Also a seasoned professional in the financial services industry, Lai worked as Standard Chartered’s country head and managing director before taking up the Grab gig.

Change of hands

Financial hurdles

The horse I’m betting on