Author: Izzat Najmi Abdullah

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,…

There was a period not too long ago when paying digitally in Malaysia still felt like a choice rather than a habit. Even with the technology in place, daily habits had not yet shifted. For many, the question was: Why bother? But the change is now visible in the numbers published in the 2025 Annual Report by Bank Negara Malaysia, which offers one of the clearest snapshots yet of how deeply digital payments have settled into everyday life. What once required persuasion, especially to those not-so-tech-savvy Malaysians, now happens almost automatically. 18.4 Billion Digital Transactions and Still Growing Data from…

When Malaysia introduced digital banking licences in 2021, the reaction from the market was very immediate. Bank Negara Malaysia received roughly 29 applications at the time, with companies forming consortiums, investors lining up to be a part of it, and the rumour mill worked overtime. Even before any official announcements, you could sense where things were heading, and there were enough signals in the market for people to piece things together. But somehow, the rollout of digital insurers and takaful operators has unfolded in a much quieter route. Applications opened in January 2025, but more than a year in, there…

Discussions about the future of banking often revolve around digital channels, cloud migration and mobile apps. At Mobile World Congress 2026 in Barcelona, Huawei placed the spotlight on what comes next. During its Digital Finance session, the company gathered financial institutions and technology partners to discuss how artificial intelligence is beginning to reshape the foundations of modern banking. The event carried the theme “Powering Resilient Intelligence, Co-creating Finance Future” and served as the backdrop for Huawei to introduce upgrades to its Banking AI and Foundation Model Solutions aimed at supporting the next phase of industry transformation. Attention quickly turned to…

“Insurance should be an embedded product in one’s lifestyle, not a luxury item.” It is a simple statement, but it challenges decades of industry orthodoxy. Insurance has long been sold as a necessity wrapped in complexity, a product people buy with hesitation and often understand only when something goes wrong. For Shadhana Sekaran, the Co-Founder and CEO of insureKU Digital Sdn Bhd (a subsidiary of Censof Holdings), that disconnect between policy and reality was impossible to ignore. For Shadhana, who grew up in a family rooted in insurance since the 1970s and spent years in the industry herself, that disconnect…

Malaysia’s payments landscape has evolved rapidly since the pandemic, accelerating into a more firmly digital-first economy. E-payment usage in Malaysia continues to climb rapidly, with transactions per capita rising from 285 in 2022 to 343 in 2023, before surging further to 409 in 2024, signalling that it has been steadily moving away from cash. At the same time, real-time payment rails and QR-based transactions have become deeply embedded in everyday transactions across the country. Instances like DuitNow QR, in particular, have reached near ubiquity. As of end-2024, there are over 2.6 million registered acceptance points, with transactions doubling to 870…

Bitcoin has become one of the most widely traded digital assets in the world, and Malaysia has developed a regulated environment for people who want to buy and sell it. Unlike the early days of crypto trading, investors in Malaysia today cannot simply use any exchange. The country requires digital asset trading to be conducted through registered Digital Asset Exchanges (DAX) approved by the Securities Commission Malaysia (SC). These exchanges operate as Recognised Market Operators (RMOs) under Malaysia’s capital market laws, meaning they must comply with strict rules on investor protection, anti-money laundering, and operational transparency. Previously, we have come…

Malaysia has unveiled its next roadmap for the development of its capital markets, outlining a strategy aimed at expanding investment opportunities, strengthening financing channels, and deepening participation across the broader economy. Introduced by the Securities Commission Malaysia, the Capital Market Masterplan (2026–2030) sets the direction for the country’s capital market over the next five years while laying the groundwork for a longer-term transformation extending to 2045. Malaysia’s capital market has already undergone significant expansion over the past decade, growing from RM2.8 trillion in 2015 to RM4.3 trillion in 2025. The new masterplan aims to accelerate that trajectory further. Market size is…

I, for one, have been vocal about Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL). I mean, what’s not to talk about when news about this fast-approval loan has often felt like sour milk? KFC, for instance, brought finger-lickin’ debt to the table at a time when 877 young Malaysians aged 18 to 40 faced bankruptcy in 2024, up from 727 the year before. When BNPL first entered the market, it felt like a promising tool. One that could give people without access to traditional credit a bit more breathing room. Some might argue that it is too easy, that, in return, some…

On 30 January 2026, the Securities Commission Malaysia issued the Practice Note on Offering of Broking Services for Digital Assets, providing regulatory clarity on how licensed capital market intermediaries may offer broking services involving digital assets. In practical terms, the Practice Note explains how licensed securities brokers may facilitate digital asset trading within the capital markets framework, subject to specific operational, custody, and client protection requirements. Issued under section 377 of the Capital Markets and Services Act 2007, the Practice Note sets out the conditions under which conventional securities brokers can extend their services into digital assets while remaining within…

Just four years after Malaysia awarded its first digital banking licences, the market is entering a more sobering phase. A string of high-profile senior leadership exits has prompted renewed questions about stability, execution, and whether Malaysia’s digital banking experiment is entering a more difficult phase. And the more recent industry chatter pointing to the possible exit of AEON Bank’s Chief Executive Officer, Raja Teh Maimunah, who is widely rumoured to be among the candidates for the next Bank Islam Group CEO, is raising a few eyebrows and questions on whether or not digital banks in Malaysia are likely to survive…

RM10 billion is a serious amount of money for any bank to commit in one go. When Maybank attached that figure to its new ROAR30 strategy, it reframed the entire conversation around the next five years. You see, this was not just another roadmap presentation filled with targets and pillars. The size and focus of the investment said something more fundamental about how the bank sees the future of banking in ASEAN. ROAR30, which runs through to 2030, marks a shift from optimisation to re-architecture. It follows M25+, a strategy that helped Maybank stabilise profitability, strengthen sustainability credentials and improve…

For the past couple of months, Malaysia’s digital banking space has been dominated by a different kind of headline. What is a lot in the news now are not conversations on launches and features, but more on who is leaving the top roles. Up to this date, the article is written, news about digital banks in Malaysia has been a steady stream of senior executives stepping away from their roles. CEOs, CTOs. Familiar names that helped bring these digital banks to life in the first place. From the outside, it is hard not to feel uneasy. We understand that. Digital…

Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) has released a Discussion Paper on Asset Tokenisation in the Malaysian Financial Sector to gather industry feedback on how digital representations of real-world assets could transform financial services. The central bank defines tokenisation as the process of converting physical or traditional financial assets into digital tokens that can be issued, traded, and settled on programmable platforms. These tokens enable features such as atomic settlement, where transactions are completed instantly once conditions are met; composability, which allows seamless interaction between financial instruments; and programmability, which automates processes through smart contracts. BNM believes these features could deliver measurable…

Malaysia is gearing up for a stronger push against cybercrime with a wide range of new measures under the 2026 National Budget. Authorities are set to introduce a Cyber Crime Bill and commit RM32 million next year. The Malaysian government hopes that this measure could help to strengthen national security, modernise police capabilities, and build stronger defences against increasingly sophisticated scams. Rising scam cases and digital exploitation have pushed the government to act. Officials are signalling a more coordinated and technology-driven strategy to keep pace with fast-evolving online threats. A New Cyber Crime Bill and National Cybersecurity Hub At the…