THE Small and Medium Enterprises Association of Malaysia (SAMENTA) has expressed its hopes that the five new successful applicants of digital banking licenses – when operational – will focus on serving Malaysian small and medium enterprises especially micro and online businesses which are currently underserved.
This comes following Bank Negara Malaysia’s (BNM) recent announcement of the five successful applicants for the digital bank licenses as approved by the Finance Ministry.
Three of the five consortiums to be licensed under the Financial Services Act 2013 (FSA) include (i) a consortium of Boost Holdings Sdn Bhd and RHB Bank Bhd; (ii) a consortium led by GXS Bank Pte Ltd and Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd; and (iii) a consortium led by SEA Ltd and YTL Digital Capital Sdn Bhd.
The two consortiums licensed under the Islamic Financial Services Act 2013 (IFSA) are (i) a consortium of AEON Financial Service Co Ltd, AEON Credit Service (M) Bhd and MoneyLion Inc; and (ii) a consortium led by KAF Investment Bank Sdn Bhd.
“We also hope that with the introduction of these digital banks the costs of banking and financing will come down and the speed of application and approval is shortened significantly,” said SAMENTA chairman Datuk William Ng.
Ng said that the awarding of these digital banking licenses is a huge step forward for the financial industry and extended his congratulations to the central bank for taking the bold step to further liberalise access to banking and finance for all Malaysians.
“We look forward to Bank Negara speeding up the transition from a regulatory-led to a market-driven development model so that market players are able to provide more relevant, tailor-made and timely financial solutions to businesses without sacrificing the integrity of our financial system,” he said.
“As the oldest and largest SME association in the country we look forward to working with these new digital banks to reach out to underserved SMEs and provide safe, accessible and innovative products to support the SMEs’ growth and resilience.” – April 29, 2022
Pic credit: PYMNTS.com
