STANCHART INVESTING RM13B TO BOOST DIGITAL BANKING

It is investing RM13 billion between now and 2020 to boost its digital banking ecosystem

STANDARD Chartered Bank Malaysia is investing over RM13 billion between now and 2020 to strengthen its global technological infrastructure in the digital banking ecosystem.

Its head of retail banking Aaron Loo said the banking group had already spent almost RM2 billion to support digital retail banking.

“Our strategy globally is to dig- ital end-to-end.

“It’s a very fundamental change, in terms of the bank’s infrastructure, to support this new technology. We will launch and deploy many new capabilities that will benefit and drive the bank’s digital agenda,” he told NST Business in an interview recently.

Loo said Malaysia had an Internet banking adoption rate of about 70 per cent, and the majority of the population was used to mobile Internet banking.

“We have got to be relevant in terms of providing interaction and engagements with our clients.

“Moving forward, we will see a lot more things landing in the next six months, which will radically change our operations in this country,” he said.

Loo said that as time went on, more and more people would understand the importance of the digital payment concept.

“In fact, Internet and online banking provides greater levels of security than the physical way of conducting transactions. That is why the central bank supports the sector’s shift into the digital economy,” he said.

Loo said about 40 per cent of Standard Chartered’s customers used its online and mobile banking facilities, adding that the bank wanted to boost the adoption of mobile payment methods.

Loo believes the younger generation had a greater propensity to adopt new technology.

“We want to reduce the amount of handling and managing cash we do, as it is expensive due to the security needed,” he said.

Internet and online banking provides greater levels of security than the physical way of conducting transactions. That is why the central bank supports the sector’s shift into the digital economy.

AARON LOO Standard Chartered Bank Malaysia head of retail banking