Bank Muamalat Malaysia has entered into a long-term partnership with banking technology firm Backbase to establish itself as a next-generation digital Islamic bank.
This collaboration, alongside SaaS cloud banking platform Mambu for core banking transformation, is said to represent a significant milestone in the bank’s digital journey. Mambu is a core partner of Backbase.
The Malaysian bank aims to innovate and streamline its services by leveraging platform technology to bridge traditional banking practices and silos.
The Backbase Engagement Banking Platform will serve as the anchor for facilitating end-to-end processes, including onboarding, transactions, financing, and backend consumer servicing.
This enables Bank Muamalat to create customised and secure customer journeys with enhanced consistency, acceleration, and scalability.
At the core of Bank Muamalat’s digital transformation is the development of a modern digital Islamic banking super app, designed to enhance its Retail Banking solutions.
This shift allows the bank to offer personalised banking experiences tailored to individual customer preferences, while also aligning with its long-term vision.
The super app aims to provide holistic life empowerment features, covering financial, faith-based, and security aspects, thereby ensuring peace of mind in every transaction.
Backbase Asia regional vice president Riddhi Dutta said: “Our partnership with Bank Muamalat exemplifies our commitment to support Islamic banks in their digital transformation endeavours.”
Bank Muamalat also plans to extend these digital innovations to its commercial and SME banking segments in the near future.
The bank’s cloud-based transformation involves using Backbase for customer-centric engagement and Mambu for digital core capabilities.
Transitioning to a cloud-based model will not only improve banking services and product offerings but also yield significant cost savings and operational efficiency gains, said Backbase.
Additionally, it will empower Bank Muamalat’s developers to accelerate software development cycles, meet regulatory requirements, and enhance security controls essential for a financial institution.
Bank Muamalat president and CEO Khairul Kamarudin said “We are attentive to the current needs of our diverse consumer base and are dedicated to advancing financial inclusion and Islamic banking practices to be more modern, customer-centric, and digitally progressive.
“The strategic advantage of the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform lies in its ability to ‘adopt and build’, which aligns with our goal to launch the digital Islamic banking platform by the end of the year.”
