American-based Wahed Invest halal robo-advisory platform announced today that they have successfully obtained regulatory approval from the Securities Commission Malaysia to offer digital investment management services in Malaysia. Wahed Invest is the 3rd to officially enter the Malaysian market after StashAway and MyTheo. Citing its support for the Malaysian government’s thrust towards the Islamic Digital Economy, the startup said that it is set to launch in Malaysia and that it intends to make Malaysia their Asia Pacific Hub. Its APAC operations is led by Syakir Hashim, who previously co-founded the recently acquired student loan crowdfunding platform Skolafund. Wahed Invest’s entrance…

Minority shareholders of Malaysian based payments company Tranglo has filed an oppression suit against TNG Fintech Group which acquired 60% of equity in Tranglo from Ekuinas in October 2018. In a media statement to Fintech News Malaysia, they claimed that TNG Fintech Group’s Alex Kong admitted to Bank Negara Malaysia in an email on 8 April 2019, its Series A funding round of US$115 Million did not materialise. This is despite an earlier statement on 11 September 2017 claiming TNG Fintech Group completed the round. Both founders of the Hong Kong-based TNG Fintech Group, Alex Kong and Takis Wong alongside…

Malaysia’s Budget 2020 was tabled last Friday, charting the economic direction of the nation. Broadly speaking, there were some hits and misses but many agree that there was there is a bigger focus of building a digital economy. Surina Shukri, the CEO of MDEC, the lead agency for driving Malaysia’s digital economy noted in a media statement that the Budget 2020 marks an inflection point in the Government’s steering of the Digital Economy. Of course, no digital economic agenda would be complete if it did not have fintech as its backbone to power its commerce. Which is why it made…

During the tabling of Malaysia’s 2020 Budget, Finance Minister Lim Guan Eng announced that Malaysia’s much anticipated virtual banking framework will be ready for public consultation by end of this year and the final framework along with applications will be open by the first half of 2020 Plans for the framework was first announced in March 2019. During the MyFintech Week organized by Bank Negara Malaysia, its Director of Financial Development and Innovation Suhaimi Ali said that the framework was about 50% complete and 10 parties have expressed interest to set up digital banks in Malaysia. To date Boost, Grab and…

In 2018, a record high of US$ 689 billion worth of remittance was made and US$ 529 billion of which were sent to low and middle-income countries. ASEAN, in particular, is a burgeoning region that is capturing the interest of international players like Transferwise and locally bred players like InstaReM, MoneyMatch and most recently BigPay. Beyond the pure remittance play “super apps” like Grab and WeChat are also eyeing this segment as well. When you glean the remittance data coming out of the region, it should come as no surprise that these players are interested in the region. ASEAN’s growth in…

The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) today announced that it has registered EdgeProp Sdn Bhd (EdgeProp) as the first Recognised Market Operator to establish and operate a property crowdfunding platform in Malaysia, following the revision of the SC’s Guidelines on Recognised Markets in May 2019. This news follows EdgeProp’s earlier launch of the controversial P2P property crowdfunding platform, FundMyHome. EdgeProp was granted an approval in principle in September 2019. PCF is an initiative announced in Budget 2019 to provide an alternative financing avenue for first-time homebuyers through a property crowdfunding scheme. In a media statement, Securities Commission Malaysia pointed out that…

Public Bank released yesterday its new mobile banking app named PB Engage MY on Google Playstore and Apple App Store. The new app features a refreshed and a slightly more modern aesthetic compared to its previous iteration. New functionality for Public Bank’s new mobile app includes PayNet’s Duit Now QR, a common QR standard which enables payments from all participating banks and e-wallets. Public Bank was the first to adopt the DuitNow QR with 33 more banks to enable it within their mobile apps soon. While the function is made available in Public Bank’s app, there is no publicly available…

A recent report by S&P Global outlining the future outlook for Malaysia’s financial services sector highlighted that Malaysian banks are underspending in technology. The report contrasted the ratio of tech spending to operating expense of Malaysia banks versus the likes of Singapore’s DBS, demonstrating the vast difference between the two. Of the banks highlighted RHB and Ambank seems to rank highest when it comes to the ratio of tech spending to operating expense and Public Bank is unsurprisingly the lowest. Image Credit: Malaysian Banking Outlook: Incumbents Feel The Squeeze Report by S&P Global With Malaysia’s virtual banking framework…

I’ve moderated and sat in a fair number of fintech panel discussions over the years, a question that is brought up 9 out 10 of every panel discussion is “What do you think are the key technology shaping fintech and banking in Malaysia?” and some variation of that same question. If you’re like me and have attended too many fintech conferences, the answers will come as no surprise to you. The common answers are often; blockchain, artificial intelligence, open banking, virtual banking, and mobile payment. Yet despite the importance of eKYC and digital identity, very rarely do you hear…

Labuan Financial Services Authority (Labuan FSA) has granted its approval for China Construction Bank Corporation Labuan Branch (CCBL) to conduct digital banking activities in the Labuan International Business and Financial Centre (Labuan IBFC). CCBL was the first to clinch Labuan FSA’s digital bank approval, the two parties said in a joint statement. Fintech News Malaysia reached out to the parties involved to clarify if a new guideline was issued to facilitate the approval of a digital bank, a representative clarified that the approval was on the basis that CCBL has an existing digital banking services license in China and commercial…

Fundaztic a peer to peer (P2P) financing platform approved by the Securities Commission Malaysia announced today the introduction of Principal Protect. The Principal Protect scheme is offered by Fundaztic in a bid to enhance investor trust and confidence by providing an assurance that investors will not incur capital losses if investments are made per simple conditions set Investors who have invested up to RM 100,000 and above will be protected RM 30,000 and investors below the investment sum will be protected up to RM 10,000 based on the following criteria: Principal Protect has a built in mechanism within the system…

The Selangor government announced today the launch of a digital payments platform dubbed Citizens Electronic Payments Platform (CEpat). CEpat is intended to be a single platform in which citizens can make payments to all government agencies at various levels of the Selangor state which includes things like zakat, assessment tax, parking. YAB Tuan Amirudin Bin Shari, Chief Minister of Selangor said in a media statement that the Selangor government’s vision is to have all state and local government services to be accessible through a single digital platform by 2022. The development of CEPat was spearheaded by the Smart Selangor Delivery Unit…

When it comes to expansion plans for Malaysian fintech startups, the usual suspects are normally our ASEAN neighbors like Indonesia, Singapore, Philippines and Thailand. One country that is often not considered, but might be worth deeper inspection the next time you are mapping your fintech startup’s global domination plan is Australia. A glance at Australia’s ecosystem shows that the country’s mature financial system and high consumer adoption indicates fintech startups with innovative solutions will find themselves thriving in the Australian market. There are many factors to why Australia would be an ideal destination startups, the following are the reasons…

Following the introduction of e-KYC guidelines for remittance companies in 2017, Bank Negara Malaysia issued an exposure draft which expands similar e-KYC guidelines for money changers in Malaysia. The draft outlines proposed mininum requirements and standards that a licensed money changer approved to implement e-KYC must observe in on-boarding customer. The draft largely mirrors the earlier policy document but with some minor tweaks in requirements reflecting the nature of a money-changing business. While the widening of e-KYC for the purposes of on-boarding customers is move that is welcome by all, the industry eagerly awaits for e-KYC to be applicable to…

During his keynote speech at the “Malaysian E-Payments Excellence Awards” Assistant Governor Adnan Zaylani Mohamad Zahid outlined the state of e-payments in Malaysia and the key strategic focus for Malaysia’s payments journey. Some key progress that we’ve made that was highlighted in his speech was: Cheque usage was reduced by half to 101 million POS terminals have more than doubled to 16 terminals per 1,000 inhabitants Over 400,000 merchants have been recorded to accept QR payments E-Payment transactions have almost tripled Mobile Payments transaction increased twenty-fold from 2 million transactions to over 34 million transactions Yet despite all the progress…

RHB unveiled today at their press conference, its latest fraud prevention technology for their card users. Partnering with Visa and IDEMIA, their credit card generates dynamic card verification value (CVV) security code on an e-paper mini-screen at the back of the card. This basically means the 3 digit code at the back of your card will automatically refresh regularly, replacing the static 3 digit code at the back of a typical credit or debit card. Dubbed as RHB Rewards Motion Code™, RHB said in a statement that this technology is set to prevent credit card fraud and hackers from accessing…

With bold claims like powering self-driving cars and streaming virtual reality, the promise of 5G in Malaysia has captured the imaginations both tech-geeks and casual internet surfers alike. Moving past some of these futuristic claims, just the basic premise of 5G being twenty times faster than 4G alone should be reason enough for people to get excited. Which is why it is welcomed news when the Malaysian Government has committed to implement 5G in Malaysia within the next 2-3 years. With 5G just lurking around the corner, we recently spoke to Ir. Ts. Azizi A. Hadi, Chief Executive Officer of…

The 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…

A recent report by The Edge identified 5 parties open to applying for Malaysia’s virtual banking license, they are namely — Grab, CIMB, Affin, Hong Leong and Ambank. Of the parties reportedly open to it only Grab and Affin seem indicate an active interest to pursue the license. Grab’s potential move to apply for a virtual banking license comes as a shock to no one following the rumours that they are also applying for a for a virtual banking license in Singapore. Among these 5 players CIMB is the only one with an experience of running a virtual bank. In…

Maybank in collaboration with Visa Malaysia and powered by Soft Space launched their mobile payments app for merchants, Tap2phone. This new service, enables them to accept card payments from customers by using the app on their mobile phones without the need for a point-of-sale (POS) terminal. Once enabled, merchants will be able to accept card payments by simply having their customers tap their card on the merchant’s mobile phone Tap2Phone is supported by the latest Android-based smartphones which are equipped with Near-Field  Communication (NFC) and Trusted Execution Environment (TEE) technologies, to facilitate credit, debit and prepaid card payments. Merchants will…