HLB wants online banking to make up 40pc of all transactions
KUALA LUMPUR: Hong Leong Bank Bhd (HLB) is aiming for 30 to 40 per cent of its banking transactions to be conducted online in the next two to three years, from about 10 per cent currently.
Group managing director and chief executive officer Domenic Fuda said there had been a significant growth in number of mobile and Internet banking users over the last 12 months as the bank started to offer more products on the platform.
“We will increase our efforts to draw in more customers, either from existing ones or those new to digital banking,” he said after the launch of HLB’s digital banking branch in Damansara City, here, yesterday.
He said Bank Negara Malaysia’s regulations required banks to do face-to-face banking under the Know-Your-Customer (KYC) rule and, thus, account openings would need to be done at bank branches, but added that other transactions could be done via Internet banking.
Under the KYC rule, a business or financial institution has to verify the identity of its clients in monetary transactions.
The rule is an essential part of banking to prevent money laundering and terrorist-funding activities.
Fuda said the bank’s flagship branch in Damansara City was equipped with a suite of digital banking facilities to enhance its customers’ experience.
The branch features wireless terminals and applications, allowing customers to perform speedy and personalised banking transactions.
Bank staff with personalised tablets were also on hand to minimise queues and reduce paper use, he said.
Fuda said the digital features would be replicated in other HLB branches, in the hopes that it would remove the physical barriers between the bank and its clients, allowing them to foster a better relationship.
On the banking sector’s outlook, he said it was expected to do extremely well due to robust gross domestic product growth, estimated at around 5.5 per cent.
“We are seeing quite a bit of activity in small and medium enterprise loans, as well as housing loans, particularly in the affordable segment, though there is a slowdown in the above RM1 million segment.
“Though I would not describe the outlook as buoyant, it is relatively stronger,” he said.
He said Asian banks would also not be massively affected by United States interest rate hikes, which he expects to be raised only gradually.