KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 24): The competition for banking and financial services in Malaysia is going to be intense with up to five new players, according to Deloitte Malaysia.

In a statement today, Deloitte Malaysia financial services executive director Shahariz Aziz said the acceleration of the digitisation agenda of incumbent banks will be very interesting to watch. Cloud, data, technology, and analytics competencies are the real game-changers.

Deloitte said for more than a year now, Malaysia has been busy with the digital banking season, with lots of action and aspirations for the digital banking licence.

It said with over 29 applications vying for the licence from the central bank, this indicates a clear interest from the participants and market opportunity.

It said that although the final licence application count is less than the anticipated range of 40-50 applicants, however, there had been good participation from both local and international entities.

Shahariz said many players have publicly announced their interest and application submission for the digital bank licence.

“Overall, these applicants bring a decent diversification of profile, from local conglomerates to incumbent banks, state governments, retail, BigTech, FinTech, telecom companies, and more,” he said.

Meanwhile, Deloitte Malaysia financial services director Gopal Kiran said a successful digital bank requires attributes such as comprehensive business strategy, right partners and talent, lightweight technology stack, strong risk management fundamentals, fresh marketing techniques, and portfolio management.

"Aspirants should never let go of a chance to attain any of these attributes early, in effort to beat the competition,” he said.