This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on June 26, 2018

KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) has partnered the Wealth Management Institute (WMI) of Nanyang Technological University (NTU) Singapore to form the Maybank Wealth Management Academy (MWMA).

Maybank will allocate some RM3 million towards the academy out of the RM30 million it had committed to in-house digital upskilling this year, said Maybank Group chief human capital officer Nora Abdul Manaf.

“But we will increase the amount whenever we see a need,” she said at the signing of the strategic partnership agreement with WMI chief executive officer Foo Mee Har here yesterday.

The MWMA programme is for seven months and its syllabus will include digital awareness, data analytics, computational thinking and human-centred design, said Nora.

It is meant to ensure that Maybank’s workforce continues to remain relevant in order to tap into the strong potential growth of its wealth management division, she said.

“We also want to ensure ethics are practiced, and that [our employees] learn not just skills but values,” she added.

Over 150 Maybank relationship managers, client advisers, wealth managers and specialists are expected to participate in the course this year, which has already seen Hong Kong and Singaporean employees beginning the course in Singapore in May. Malaysian employees will start the programme in Kuala Lumpur on July 16.

Maybank head of group wealth management and community financial services Singapore Alvin Lee said the WMI was selected out of five service providers after a “robust selection process”.