Axiata Group and RHB Banking Group (RHB) have agreed to expand their existing partnership agreement. Under the terms of the deal, Axiata’s subsidiary Boost Holdings and RHB will set up a consortium to apply for a digital banking license in Malaysia.
As equity partners in the consortium, Boost Holdings will own a majority stake of 60 percent, while RHB will own the remaining 40 percent in the digital bank entity. Celcom Axiata has signed up as a major commercial partner on joint go-to-market activities with the Digital Bank on products and services which will be available for customers of both parties.
The parties will seek to expand on Boost Holdings’ fintech experience developed through Aspirasi, a digital micro-financing and micro-insurance provider and the Boost e-Wallet.
RHB sees the Digital Bank as an extension of its Digital Transformation Programme. RHB will bring to the consortium expertise across core banking services, risk management and compliance, liquidity, capital, operational and credit management, product management, and responsible financing.
The parties will also leverage RHB’s Agile@Scale experience in building digital offerings such as the RHB MyHome app, SME integrated eSolutions, Digital SME Financing App (first AI enabled Digital SME lending app in Malaysia), and eKYC on-boarding service to serve Digital Bank customers.
RHB and Axiata believe that the Digital Bank will unlock synergistic opportunities to benefit underserved retail customers and micro-SMEs that fall outside the normal focus of traditional banks.
Complementary to the Digital Bank, RHB and Axiata are also exploring opportunities to expand their joint customer ecosystems. A potential initiative involves providing combined services to SMEs. Axiata currently serves more than 250,000 merchants and micro businesses via its Boost e-Wallet and Aspirasi microfinancing businesses, whereas RHB offers more than 200,000 of its SMEs access to a connected ecosystem of SME banking and business services (integrated suite for payments, human resource management, accounting, and financing).
