Digital bank: A promising start, with more to unfold
In an exclusive interview with Bernama, the central bank governor said licensed digital banks have just begun operations, with most now focusing on growing their deposit base.
"We have been seeing very good progress with deposits coming in from both underserved and unserved segments," he said.
On the financing side, Abdul Rasheed said most digital banks have yet to fully roll out their credit products to the general public.
"In fact, the digital banks are still at the 'foundational phase', where they are subject to asset size limitations. It's still too early to come up with an assessment.
"Products are gradually being introduced, with some being offered mainly to target groups, such as staff and families, before the full public rollout.
"We will consider all the key data from the digital banks to come up with an assessment as to whether digital banks meet our ultimate aim of serving the underserved and unserved," he said.
Malaysia has five licensed digital banks, namely GXBank, AEON Bank, Boost Bank, KAF Digital Bank and Ryt Bank.
The five digital banks were awarded their licences on April 29, 2022 by BNM after being approved by the Ministry of Finance (MoF).
Of the five, four have commenced offering their products to the public, providing a range of digital financial services, including personal banking, business solutions and Islamic banking products.
GX Bank, the Grab-led digital bank, was the first to receive approval to begin operations on Sept 1, 2023.
This was followed by Boost Bank, a digital banking venture formed by Boost (Axiata) and RHB Banking Group, which commenced operations on Jan 15, 2024, and AEON Bank, Malaysia's first fully Islamic digital bank that was officially launched and commenced operations on May 26, 2024.
MoF granted KAF Digital and RYT Bank licences to commence their operations on Dec 20, 2024.
KAF Digital is the operating entity established by an Islamic digital bank consortium, comprising Carsome, MoneyMatch, Jirnexu and StoreHub, with KAF Investment Bank Bhd at the helm.
Meanwhile, YTL Digital Bank Bhd -- formed through a joint venture between YTL Digital Capital Sdn Bhd and Sea Ltd to operate as Ryt Bank -- provides a suite of services, including single-text input fund transfers and tailored financial insights, via its artificial intelligence (AI)-equipped platform.
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