KUALA LUMPUR (April 21): Bank Islam will not apply for a digital banking licence as it intends to leverage its existing Islamic banking licence, according to its chief executive officer (CEO) Mohd Muazzam Mohamed.
At a media briefing today, Muazzam said Bank Islam had established a dedicated division to design and build its digital-only proposition.
“The Centre of Digital Experience (CDX) was established a year ago, and Bank Islam is planning to launch the digital-only proposition within this year.
“The division focuses on experimenting with next-gen technologies and delivering financial solutions to the unserved and underserved segments in Malaysia,” he said.
Meanwhile, Muazzam also highlighted that the group will adopt a digital-first approach across the bank and continue to grow its capabilities with continuous investment in digitalisation.
“Through data monetisation efforts, we plan to increase the effectiveness of our business decisions and strategies, and leverage the abundance of data that we have.
“We also have established a Data Analytics Centre of Excellence (DAC) to drive bank-wide analytics implementation,” Muazzam added.
On allocation for banking’s moratorium and repayment exercise for the financial year ended Dec 31, 2020 (FY20), the bank recognised a one-off loss of RM136.4 million from modification of the expected cash flow of the financing.
“A pre-emptive impairment provision in the form of management overlays of RM231.6 million was also made in FY20 in consideration of the challenging economic environment,” he said.