Boost May Soon Become a Bank in Malaysia as Axiata Eyes Virtual Banking License
by Vincent Fong July 9, 2019The Axiata Group is seemingly eyeing for Malaysia’s virtual banking license, according to a recent report by The Edge. According to the same report, Khairil Abdullah, CEO, Axiata Digital, said that the group “definitely expressed interest” in a virtual banking license.
This move seems like a logical progression for Axiata Digital who is best known to consumers as the company behind the popular e-wallet app Boost.
With a large user base of 3.8 Million and 75,000 merchants, offering a suite of financial services could potentially help the company to recoup back the heavy cost of customer acquisition that is has undertaken recently.
This news comes after the announcement of a potential merger between Axiata and Telenor, who is the parent company to Digi. If the banking license and merger comes to fruition, they could be a real force to be reckoned with, the new entity will have a potential user base of more than half of Malaysia population.
It would be interesting to see how Axiata’s potential new virtual banking unit will fare up against Grab who has also announced similar ambitions just a week ago.
Editor’s Note: We’ve fixed a typo that incorrectly stated 75,000 users instead of 75,000 merchants.
