AmBank ramps up digital strategy
Group allocates RM150mil to enhance online services
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s sixth largest banking group by assets, AmBank Group, plans to ramp up the digitalisation of its financial services as it looks to invest RM150mil over the next two years for its digital strategy.
Group chief operations officer Datuk Iswaraan Suppiah said the RM150mil capital expenditure represented an increase of 50% as compared to the RM100mil spent in the past two years.
Although AmBank’s digital journey started relatively later than the other big names in the financial sector, about 70% of the bank’s products and services have been digitalised or “made online” to date.
In less than two years after the inception of its digital strategy, AmBank has seen promising returns from its investments.
Since the launch of AmOnline – AmBank’s digital banking service – in October 2017, the bank’s customer base has doubled in size, Iswaraan told StarBiz.
The AmOnline app is the country’s first online banking platform to be equipped with a multi-lingual option in English, Bahasa Melayu and Mandarin.
The app, which is accessible 24 hours a day, seven days a week, offers transacting features such as fund transfer, bill payments, prepaid mobile top ups as well as credit card and loan payments.
Customers can also consolidate their outstanding credit card balance from other banks into their AmBank credit cards, or get cash from their credit card under the “Quick Apply” feature.
Iswaraan pointed out that as a result of AmBank’s continued digitalisation push, its online financial transactions have surged by 100 times in a one-year period. WHEN Malaysia published its first Corporate Governance Code in 2000, the focus was on companies, especially public listed companies.
The objective was to set down principles, best practices and the optimal structures and processes needed to ensure good governance. This was appropriate at the time as we wrestled with the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.
With some amendments in 2007, plus direct intervention by Bank Negara in tutoring financial institution boards, the Code helped carry us through the 2008 global banking and financial crisis.
In the last decade, however, it has become obvious that the same principles, practices, structures and processes apply to a broader community of entities, including public sector and public interest enterprises. Some, such as Petronas, have recognised the need for change and taken steps to upgrade their governance processes and practices.
Unfortunately, there other entities which have failed to deliver on transparency, ethical leadership, accountability, effective controls and sound performance.
There is a third category of public enterprise which appears from the outside to be well-managed and thriving. However, their disclosures are so opaque that, coupled with leadership which is answerable to government, much is left wanting in terms of transparency. Thus, their legitimacy and sustainability is increasingly open to question.
Corporate governance has evolved further over the past decade with the latest Code published in 2017. But it is still focused on the company. Even the current drive to
“On the retail segment, our digital initiatives have allowed the cost of serving customers to come down to 10% as compared to what we will incur if we serve through branches. We will pass through the reduced cost to serve in terms of better rates online to our customers.
“As for the non-retail or corporate segment, we have the AmAccess digital banking platform. We are seeing the average current account balances grow up to three-fold for these clients who use our digital solutions,” he said.
He added that AmBank would soon pilot- improve ethical standards in government-linked companies seems to share this narrow approach.
I believe it is time for change – not to the processes, practices or the desired outcomes of the new Code, but to the object of the Code. The virtues of adopting the highest standards of governance and ethics apply to a wider community than companies, including government-linked investment companies.
In today’s context, good governance and ethical conduct should be found also in public sector and public interest enterprises, such as voluntary associations, retirement funds, trusts, collective savings and investment schemes, legislated entities and others. It should be a launch its SME
AmAccess Biz.
Iswaraan said AmBank rolled out new features for its digital platforms once in every three months to update the online solutions and meet customers’ evolving needs.
The bank’s online offerings are mostly developed by its in-house technology experts in line with AmBank’s aspirations to transform its digital footprint, led by data analytics, artificial intelligence and machine learning.
On Oct 29, AmBank launched its virtual financial assistant, AMY, as part of its drive to enhance customers’ digital banking experience. AMY, an acronym of AmBank Malaysia, is integrated into AmBank’s AmOnline mobile banking app.
For a start, Iswaraan said AMY would focus on assisting customers on credit card services such as activating a new card, resetting a forgotten pin, arrange a temporary or permanent credit card limit increase, blocking a lost card and help customers pick the right credit card.
“AMY has been a success for AmBank. Since its launch till Nov 21, some 22,100 users have interacted with the virtual financial assistant.
“About 288 cards have been activated, while 132 temporary credit limit increase applications have been recorded via AMY,” he added. national aspiration.
To achieve this, we need to extend the object of the Code of Corporate Governance beyond companies, to include any legal entity incorporated to be separated from its founders. A similar approach is taken in South Africa.
Governance in the political or national sense will be strengthened by having a wider “corporate” sector which follows governance best practices. When ethics are practiced without interference or outside influence, and fiduciary duties to ultimate beneficiaries are recognised as paramount across public enterprises, the regard for the government and the nation will be enhanced online banking platform, domestically and internationally.
Many of our public sector and public interest enterprises have a significant economic presence. The funds entrusted to our public savings institutions in particular should never be regarded as part of a public purse, from which disbursement can be directed to satisfy some political expedient. Stewardship in our corporate entities and institutions needs to be taken seriously, and a supporting framework is essential. Key concerns include:
> Transparency and public accountability. Companies publish reports for their shareholders and stakeholders; public entities should report to the same standards and in a similar manner to a Parliamentary Committee.
> Compliance with the enterprise’s Constitution. All directors (those responsible for governance) should be aware of this fundamental duty of care.
> Care and diligence in managing the enterprise to safeguard its assets and evaluate/address the risks faced by the enterprise.
> Faithfulness to the interests of shareholders, stakeholders and beneficiaries, while avoiding conflicts of interest and any inappropriate influence from external parties. When the shareholder is the government, an institution must place the interests of its beneficiaries above those of the ruling party and its political agenda.
> Establishing effective policies and systems of internal control to ensure administrative integrity.
> Embedding an ethical culture throughout the enterprise.
Of course, not every enterprise will follow the same methodology. They may have a variety of organisational structures in place, as determined by their circumstances. What will be essential is a documented system of the process for decision-making and internal control, with written terms of reference.
A Code of Conduct to establish ethical and behavioural standards and a process which exposes breaches of those standards will also be expected to be common place.
Oversight, in whatever form it takes, will then be focused on the outcomes, not simply the forms or processes. The results will tell if the processes work, which is the essence of accountability.
Governance and ethics go handin-hand. Society has a right to expect exemplary stewardship and fiduciary responsibility not just in privately or government-owned companies, but throughout the public sector.
AMY has been a success for AmBank. Since its launch till Nov 21, some 22,100 users have interacted with the virtual financial assistant.