Author: Izzat Najmi Abdullah

The 10 Bursa-listed Malaysian banking groups in this comparison collectively made about RM9.58 billion in net profit during the April-to-June quarter, roughly 3.6% more than the same group earned a year earlier. Maybank alone contributed RM2.69 billion, or about 28% of the combined figure. CIMB and Public Bank followed with RM1.94 billion and RM1.82 billion respectively. Together, the three accounted for roughly two-thirds of the profits in this comparison. The growth ranking looks quite different. Alliance Bank’s profit jumped 25%, while Hong Leong Bank grew 14.2%. Affin Bank and MBSB were the only two to report lower earnings, with MBSB’s…

Let me ask you something. What would you do if you opened your digital banking app one morning and found out the bank was shutting down? Your first concern would probably be the money already sitting there, especially if your salary goes into that account or you keep part of your savings there. If you also have a loan with the same bank, another question follows almost immediately. Am I already free from the debt? Before anyone panics, none of Malaysia’s digital banks is currently in that position. GXBank, Boost Bank, AEON Bank, Ryt Bank and KAF Digital Bank are…

A bank can authenticate the right customer at 9.01am and still lose control of that session by 9.05am, without a single failed login anywhere in between. Those four minutes, the window right after a customer proves who they are, are where account takeover fraud increasingly plays out now, according to bank and security executives speaking on a recent Fintech News Network webinar. Banks have spent years tightening the front door with multi-factor authentication, device binding and biometrics. As those defences have improved, fraudsters have started looking for ways around them. Some account takeover attacks are now targeting customers after they…

Most Malaysians probably do not think of their finances as particularly complicated until they count how many places their money is kept. Your salary might go into one bank, your emergency savings into another, while your credit card comes from somewhere else. For EPF, well, you check that separately through KWSP, while an e-wallet or two handles much of your everyday spending. Getting a full picture of your finances can already mean opening several apps. Malaysia’s Open Finance push could make some of that easier. A new Brankas whitepaper argues that the framework could allow banks and fintechs to build…

Malaysia’s digital asset calendar has been busy this year. Banks and regulators have moved several ideas that used to live mostly in discussion papers into testing, while the rules governing parts of the market are changing at the same time. Much of the work is still underway, which gives Luno’s Institutional Digital Asset Conference (LIDAC) plenty to work with when it returns on 24 September. The second edition of LIDAC brings it back to Kuala Lumpur in 2026, which is set to gather more than 600 people from finance, government and digital assets at M Resort Hotel. Several speakers have been…

TNG Digital had already won the scale game. It had Malaysia’s largest e-wallet user base and a brand that barely needed an introduction. A few months back, TNG eWallet had 26 million verified users, including 23 million Malaysians, or more than 85% of the country’s adult population. The Edge Malaysia described it as “by far” the country’s biggest e-wallet operator by user base. By the time Alan Ni sat down with us, he said that figure had climbed to 27 million. Still, the company was losing money. Around three years ago, TNG Digital had been operating for six years when…

Tap a multi-currency card in Tokyo, and the payment looks no different from any other card transaction. Behind the tap, however, is a different story as the issuer has to identify the purchase currency, find the matching wallet, decide whether another balance should cover a shortfall and apply foreign exchange where required.  The transaction must then be authorised, settled and reconciled across the programme’s records and external partners. More customers are making the kind of payments that expose this complexity.  Cross-border transactions on Asia-Pacific-issued Visa cards grew at more than twice the rate of domestic transactions in 2025, while spending…

MDEC and the Ministry of Digital have withdrawn support for Malaysia Blockchain Week (MYBW) 2026, following backlash over the event’s after-party booking of DJ and influencer Ms Pui Yi. In a bilingual LinkedIn post, MDEC said neither the agency nor the Ministry of Digital took part in planning, approving, or promoting the after-party, including selecting its guests. MDEC said it had directed organisers to remove all materials bearing the name, logo, or image of the Ministry of Digital, MDEC, and the Minister of Digital. The agency said claims that it or the ministry approved, endorsed, or held any connection to…

Malaysia Blockchain Week (MYBW) 2026 has apologised via its LinkedIn post after Malaysian social media users criticised its decision to book DJ and influencer Ms Pui Yi for the event’s official after-party. The backlash surfaced days before the two-day conference, which runs from 29 to 30 July at the World Trade Centre Kuala Lumpur. ACTIV8 will organise MYBW 2026 and has scheduled the after-party for 30 July at ING Live KL, with promotional material advertising a “special guest DJ set by Ms Pui Yi.” MYBW lists access to the official after-party among the benefits for pass holders, subject to capacity.…

Tan Sri Tay Ah Lek did not just top the ranking of the highest-paid bank CEOs in Malaysia in 2025. Public Bank’s Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) finished well ahead of everyone else, with RM64.76 million in total disclosed remuneration. Maybank President and Group CEO Khairussaleh Ramli followed at RM15.19 million. Third place was much tighter, with CIMB Group CEO Novan Amirudin receiving RM11.74 million, only RM571,000 more than Hong Leong Bank’s Kevin Lam who sits fourth, but we’re not diving into that as this list covers the top 3 highest-paid bank CEOs in Malaysia for the year…

Sole proprietors do not always get treated well when they walk into a bank branch to ask for a loan, said Hildah Hamzah, Deputy CEO and Chief Operating Officer of GXBank. Some of them do not look the part, they do not sound the part, and the embarrassment of admitting they need help keeps many away from formal credit altogether. GXBank’s own lending data shows how many had been left outside the system. Of the digital bank’s MSME borrowers, 87% had never held a loan before, Hildah told Fintech News Network’s Fintech Fireside Asia podcast. Bank Negara Malaysia had also…

Malaysians are now spoilt for choice when it comes to digital banks, and the digital bank savings rate on offer is becoming a big reason to pick one over another. GXBank, Boost Bank, AEON Bank, Ryt Bank and KAF Digital Bank are all in the market, giving savers more places to park their money without opening a traditional branch-based account. The sector is no longer just about new app launches either. By the end of 2025, Malaysia’s digital banks had collectively served 2.4 million customers and held RM4.2 billion in deposits, according to Bank Negara Malaysia. Around 65% of their…

Recent talks around the block have made it clear that banks do want AI, but the latest news has now asked them, should we? In May 2026, HSBC CEO Georges Elhedery said generative AI will “destroy certain jobs” and create new ones, while urging employees not to fight the change. Standard Chartered has gone further, saying it plans to cut 15% of its corporate function roles by 2030 as it uses AI and automation to slim operations, improve productivity and lift returns. But those examples of how AI is affecting companies do not necessarily mean banks in Southeast Asia will…

For many small businesses, access to financing can still feel like a race against time. Demand may be there, customers may be spending, and stock may need to move quickly, but funding often arrives too late or not at all. Malaysia has made strong progress in financial inclusion, with 92% of Malaysians using digital financial services in 2024 and e-payment transactions per capita rising to 409. Yet that progress has not fully solved the financing challenge for small and medium enterprises. Applications still stall when smaller businesses cannot produce the documents, financial records or cash flow patterns lenders expect. Roughly…

Risk and compliance departments across the Asia-Pacific (APAC) have spent years tackling financial crime as isolated hurdles, a strategy completely upended by the escalating and growing fraud trends in 2026. Most, if not all, often treat each threat as a separate challenge that was divided across departments. Something like when document forgery is sat with onboarding teams, while suspicious cross-border transfers fall under anti-money laundering units. But such a siloed defence strategy does make sense, especially when attackers were largely opportunistic, and the threats themselves were as disconnected as the institutions. In the year 2026, however, trends show that criminal…

Database infrastructure has rarely been the most visible part of Asia’s fintech boom, but it is increasingly becoming one of the most consequential. For much of the past decade, the industry’s attention has sat mostly on the customer-facing layer, as consumers grew more comfortable managing money through digital channels and financial institutions raced to make everyday transactions feel faster and less visible. That front-end progress is now placing heavier demands on the systems underneath it. As digital finance becomes more deeply woven into daily life, the infrastructure behind transactions, account balances, reconciliations, fraud checks and customer activity has to do…

Malaysia processed RM831 billion in retail e-payment transactions in 2025, up from RM698.2 billion in 2024, reflecting the continued shift toward digital payments across consumers and businesses. As digital payment activity expands, financial institutions are also taking a closer look at technologies that can support more complex transaction workflows. Blockchain has entered that conversation gradually, first in controlled pilots and targeted deployments where payments depend on clear conditions or predefined triggers. Companies like Blox have focused their efforts in these practical settings, testing how the technology performs in specific situations rather than attempting broad changes to existing payment systems. In…

Digital payments have become more of a routine for most Malaysians. You can use it to clear tolls, parking, meals and even use it to pay your bills. The transaction completes almost instantaneously. It is so seamless that almost all of the users do not even think about the technology enabling those moments. TNG eWallet started as a digital payment solution for everyday transactions, particularly offline QR payments across transport, retail and small merchants. Today, it has evolved into a broader financial and lifestyle platform that integrates payments, financial services and everyday services within a single app, operating at a scale…

Bank Negara Malaysia is hiring for digital asset roles, including a Manager position within its Payment Services Policy Department and a Database Analyst in its technology infrastructure team. The roles come as Malaysia continues its work under the Digital Asset Innovation Hub (DAIH), raising a question. Is BNM starting to prepare for what comes after the sandbox? DAIH Work Is Already Underway The Digital Asset Innovation Hub has been used to test tokenised deposits and ringgit-based stablecoins within a controlled setting, bringing together banks and industry players to explore different use cases. Among the participants, Maybank, CIMB, and Standard Chartered…

Every time a Malaysian pays a utility bill, tops up a prepaid line, or redeems a digital voucher inside a banking app, there is an entire infrastructure layer working quietly in the background. Most users won’t realise it exists, and that is precisely the point. “The best infrastructure is an infrastructure that nobody actually thinks about,” says Alex Tan, CEO of IIMMPACT Sdn Bhd. “Today, if you turn on your light switch, you wouldn’t think about the power grid. You just know that electricity is there.” For Alex and his team, the payment infrastructure should work the same way. Invisible,…