The Angkatan Koperasi Kebangsaan Malaysia Berhad (Angkasa) said that its appeal to be granted a digital bank license will be given serious consideration by the Malaysian government.
Previously, Angkasa and Boustead Holdings had jointly announced in July 2021 that they will be submitting an application for one of the licenses.
According to Angkasa, the reason why the appeal will be given due consideration is apparently for the benefit of the seven million members of the cooperative and the community as a whole.
This development was revealed when the Prime Minister of Malaysia, Dato ‘Sri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, attended the National Cooperative Month Celebration 2022 (BKK22) held at the Malaysia Tourism Center (MATIC) in Kuala Lumpur last Saturday.
The prime minister said in his speech that it is time for “cooperatives to move faster in line with the private sector because the dominance of the value chain of cooperatives will not be smooth without financial instruments”.
This belies BNM’s Governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus statement a few days after the licenses were issued that there were no plans to award any more licenses as this isn’t a case of “the more the merrier”.
In April, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) had finally announced the five recipients of the much anticipated digital bank licenses.