‘Banks need fintech tie-ups to stay relevant’
KUALA LUMPUR: Banks need to cooperate with other parties in adopting financial technology (fintech) in order to stay relevant in the future.
AmInvestment Bank Bhd chief executive officer Raja Teh Maimunah Raja Abdul Aziz, who is also AmBank Group managing director of wholesale banking, said up to now, there had not been such integration in Malaysia.
AmInvestment arguably has taken the first step towards fintech integration when it began its collaboration with Axiata Bhd for the usage of QR code.
“This is our first steps towards further fintech collaboration. However, some other banks have their own directions by developing their own fintech laboratories and taking on fintech experts for their own fintech initiatives.
“That is why we don’t have full integration because everyone is going in their own direction. In my opinion, fintech does not need banks and banks do not need fintech as each has different DNAs.
“The fintech DNA is more towards customer experience, where banks’ DNA is towards customer trust. I am hopeful that there will be further collaboration between the two. Fintech will not be disrupted because of banks and vice-versa. In fact, it would only make things easier for our customers,” said Raja Teh Maimunah at the Malaysia FinTech Expo 2018, here, yesterday.
For example, the creation of MPesa Bank by Vodafone in Kenya back in 2007, she said the bank had enabled the locals to carry out banking activities through their smartphones.
Within 10 years, the M-Pesa Bank managed to acquire 75 per cent of the local population as customers, thus allowing the bank to expand to Albania, Afganistan, South Africa and other countries.