Bank Islam has revealed that it plans to officially launch its digital bank, Be U, in mid-July. The digital offering is mainly being targeted at younger users and its CEO, Muazzam Mohamed, said that the bank is aiming for between 350,000 to 400,000 downloads and users within its first 12 months.
Be U is a mobile app that is apparently Malaysia’s first digital bank built natively on the cloud. According to Muazzam, the app has actually been made available to download since last month, but Bank Islam is planning a hard launch sometime this month after gathering feedback. You can find it on the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store.
The launch of Be U comes a little over two months after Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) announced the successful recipients for its limited digital bank licence. Five consortiums were able to obtain the licence, with conventional digital bank licences given to Boost-RHB, Grab-Kuok Brothers and Sea-YTL, while consortiums by AEON and KAF Investment Bank were given Islamic digital bank licences.
It seems that Bank Islam has beaten the consortiums by a long stretch as it will take around 12 to 24 months of auditing before any of them can officially operate a digital bank. Last year, Muazzam announced the financial institution’s plan for a digital offering and said that it would use its existing Islamic banking licence instead of applying for a digital banking licence.
The group has invested RM34 million to set up Be U and the CEO said that it will complement Bank Islam instead of competing with it by targeting the younger generation instead of established adults and enterprises. He added that the app will frequently be releasing new offerings over the next 12 months.
The Be U Qard Savings Account-i requires zero balance to maintain and can be quickly opened by anyone over 18 with a Malaysian IC. It also has a “Nest” feature for savings goals, allows funds transfers, and according to the screenshots on its app page, it will soon include a “Gigs” feature as well as QRPay.
(Source: The Edge Markets)
