The National Bank has finally announced the names of the five consortia that have successfully applied for a digital banking licence!
According to the news issued by the National Bank, the five successful consortia that have applied for a digital banking licence are the consortium of Axiata and RHB, the consortium of Grab, Singtel and Kuok Brothers, the consortium of Sea and YTL, the consortium of AEON and MoneyLion and the consortium of KAF.
Successful consortia must enter an operational readiness period and be audited and verified by the National Bank before being allowed to commence services. The entire process is expected to take between 12 and 24 months. The National Bank received a total of 29 applications and eventually issued five digital banking licences.
The term Digital Banking refers to the complete digitalisation of a bank and all its activities, programmes and functions. Unlike traditional banks, digital banks no longer rely on a physical branch network, whether they have branches or not, but use the digital network as the core of the bank
Digital banking complements traditional banks, which now mainly serve people with good credit histories, while those without credit histories find it difficult to obtain loans from traditional banks. Digital banking will therefore primarily help those with no credit history, and will be an alternative way of determining whether they are eligible to borrow.
