Boost, the fintech arm of Axiata Group and RHB Banking Group has secured the highly anticipated digital bank license issued by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM).
In June last year, the partnership between Boost and RHB to form a digital bank consortium was announced, with Boost owning a majority stake of 60%, and RHB owning the remaining 40%.
In a joint statement, Boost and RHB said that the aim will be to create greater access for financial inclusion digitally amongst the underserved and unserved segments.
Both parties will combine their deep expertise in specific areas to deliver on the key criteria established by BNM.
Over the past few years, Boost has been laying the foundation and building the essential blocks for a digital bank, one of which is through a large lending business via Boost Credit.
Through this, the fintech player has developed a large digitally engaged core customer base with deep data-driven insights to break new grounds to build strong value propositions that solve the pain points of the underserved. Partnering with RHB enables Boost to leverage the latter’s banking expertise.
Boost has been making significant investments in building technology platforms and said that it hopes to be able to launch the service in the near term.
RHB, on the other hand, brings to the consortium many years of established trust with customers and regulatory authorities, as well as expertise across key banking areas including core banking services, risk management and compliance, liquidity, capital, operational and credit management, product management, and responsible financing.
The parties will also leverage RHB’s Agile@Scale model to achieve speed in delivery and productivity as well as in building successful digital offerings similar to what has already been achieved in existing offerings such as RHB MyHome app, RHB SME e-Solutions, SME Online Financing (an AI enabled digital SME lending app in Malaysia), RHB Reflex and eKYC on-boarding solutions.
Boost also signed an MOU with Credit Guarantee Corporation Malaysia (CGC) in June last year through its subsidiary, Boost Credit for a potential digital bank guarantee, and became the first digital bank licensee to collaborate with CGC.
Through the MOU, both entities seek to explore extending a portfolio guarantee for the future digital bank’s MSME-focused loans, and the second involves a collaboration with CGC in taking up referrals to provide financing for eligible MSMEs without collateral.
BNM had finally announced the five recipients of the digital banking licenses last Friday after a month of delay.
Sheyantha Abeykoon, Group CEO of Boost said,
“At Boost, we are extremely excited and thrilled with the announcement by BNM today. The digital bank will be a catalyst for greater financial inclusion and aligns with our core mission to financially empower and support users and merchants.
The award of the digital banking license now fulfils our vision of becoming a full spectrum fintech player in the region to better serve the underserved and as one of the pioneers in the industry, we look forward to this very exciting journey in creating an inclusive digital and financial ecosystem for all Malaysians together with RHB via the digital bank.”
Dr. Siew Chan Cheong, Chief Strategy Officer of RHB further added,
“Building a successful digital bank for underserved customers in Malaysia means embedding ourselves deeply into the daily lives of our customers to ensure that the digital bank is present and ready when they need it – such an entity must exhibit not just high levels of convenience, but also a high level of trustworthiness and responsibility.
Together with Boost, we believe that the digital bank we’re building together will have all this in place. The digital bank also demonstrates RHB’s commitment and desire to spur innovation within Malaysian financial services.”
