Bank Islam Malaysia Bhd has chosen Kestrl, a UK based Islamic Fintech that offers personal finance solutions to Muslims, to develop and implement personal financial management (PFM) features for its newly launched digital bank ‘Be U’.
Through this partnership, Bank Islam hopes to cement its status as Malaysia’s leading Islamic Bank and create an app that provides ‘next-level’ banking for over 350,000 users that it expects to acquire over the next 12 months. Officially launched in July, Be U is understood to be the country’s first digital bank that is built natively on the cloud.
Founded in 2019 by two Cambridge graduates, Kestrl branded itself ‘The Muslim Money App’, promising to help its users to grow their wealth without compromising on their religious beliefs.
It does this with its bespoke PFM tool, applying machine learning and behavioural science to users’ transaction data to create a monthly budget, automatic savings, and personalised investment/savings suggestions to users to achieve their goals.
The partnership sees Kestrl moving beyond its Consumer App offering, and launching its Software as a Service proposition as it hopes to collaborate with more Islamic Banks looking to digitally transform.
Bank Islam hopes to use Kestrl’s PFM tool and its new digital banking app to market its extensive suite of Islamic banking products to younger, digitally savvy customers who strongly desire a more user-friendly solution that align with their values. The Bank expects to introduce the new offerings on Be U by the end of the year.
Mohd Muazzam Mohamed, Bank Islam Group Chief Executive Officer, said:
“Bank Islam is pleased to partner with a values-orientated fintech like Kestrl that shares our commitment towards customer centricity and Shariah compliance. Through this partnership and our shared learnings in Malaysian and UK markets, we hope to provide Be U users with a truly innovative experience.”
Areeb Siddiqui, Kestrl Chief Executive Officer said:
“We are extremely excited to be partnering with as forward thinking an organisation as Bank Islam to develop its digital bank. Offering personalised solutions to Muslims without them feeling they’ve had to compromise is at the heart of Kestrl’s values, and we look forward to applying our existing PFM tools, as well as developing some new features for the Malaysian market, to build a truly differentiated offering for the Bank.”
