Why Malaysian banks will never build a superapp

Banking Technology

It is unlikely that there will ever be a banking superapp, as consumers have no issue switching between apps to accommodate their financial and non-financial needs.

“Consumers have no qualms using many apps that are [the] best fit for their specific needs and will choose a financial service provider based on convenience at the point of transaction,” Ryan Teoh, group chief strategy and innovation officer at RHB Bank Berhad, told attendees of the Kuala Lumpur leg of the 2023 Asian Banking & Finance Forum held at the Impiana KLCC on 24 May.

Teoh presented a compelling slide illustrating how jam-packed Malaysia’s “Digitally Disrupted” banking landscape is: one that spans all 124 payment brands present in the country as well as the 14 sectors — some beyond banking and finance — in which they are active. Successful digital disruptors such as Grab, Lazada, Shopee, and Fave, are blurring the lines between their identities as e-commerce platforms, payment facilitators or service providers, and even consumer loyalty apps. The end result is that these disruptors are building their

Cultivate a digital ecosystem that revolves around enabling agile and robust capabilities to fulfill evolving customer demands own ecosystem, united by their own superapps.

Banks — both digital and traditional — are called to up their game in their digital services and channels and deliver both delight and convenience in order to continue capturing customers’ loyalty.

“Banks need to move away from its traditional stigma of being ‘risk-averse’ and ‘slow in responding,’ to being able to innovate and evolve with consumer needs,” Teoh stressed.

Teoh said that banks in Malaysia must find ways to integrate banking services into the daily lives of customers seamlessly; ensure that they have the right infrastructure to compete in terms of data analytics; and find a means for innovation to work within the walls of a “traditional” bank.

Ahmad Nasri Abdul Wahab of KPMG, the event’s keynote speaker, advised Malaysian leaders to turn customer data into actionable insights by defining the research, analytics, and visualisation aspects to maximise the service value delivered to customers. He said it is also important to cultivate a digital ecosystem that revolves around enabling agile and robust capabilities to fulfill evolving customer demands; and design and deploy holistic customer experience service and solutions across the enterprise. Wahab’s recommendations are based on KMPG’s study involving 1,000 customers and 75 brands in Malaysia.

THE CHARTIST: HONG KONG’S CARD PAYMENTS MARKET TO GROW 4.8% IN 2023

Growing preference for electronic payments and the city’s economy rebounding are expected to carry Hong Kong’s card payments to a 4.8% growth in 2023.

In a report, data and analytics company GlobalData said that the value of card payments in the city will reach HK$1.06b (US $136b) by end 2023, growing faster than the 3.2% growth reported in 2022.

“The convenience of electronic payments, well-developed payment infrastructure, a growing preference for contactless, and e-commerce payments are all facilitating increased payment card usage in Hong Kong,” said Ravi Sharma, lead banking and payments analyst, GlobalData.

Credit and charge cards are the preferred payment cards, accounting for 71.7% of card payments value in 2022. This is mainly due to the associated reward programs, said Sharma, which makes it more beneficial than debit cards for consumers.

Credit cards also have wider acceptance among merchants, while debit cards are not that popular, Sharma added.

Debit cards accounted for the remaining 28.3% share of card payments in 2022. The key reason for low debit card usage is the limited acceptance of domestic EPS debit cards. These cards can only be used for offline payments in the country.

In GlobalData’s 2022 Financial Services Consumer Survey, credit cards are the most preferred payment method for e-commerce payments, one-third of total online purchases. This growth could support Hong Kong’s payment card market.