AEON has announced that its digital bank known as AEON Bank has received approval from Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the ministry of finance to commence operations. According to the company, it is being positioned as the first Islamic digital bank in Malaysia, although that’s not completely accurate given the introduction of Be U, which was established using Bank Islam’s existing conventional banking licence.
Currently, AEON Bank is still in as exclusive beta testing phase, which only includes employees of AEON Group. This phase is for the digital bank to gather important feedback to refine and optimise the app before a full launch of the app. The company says that it plans to unveil a phased rollout in the first half of the year.
Back in 2022, BNM announced five recipients for digital banking licences, which included a consortium made up of AEON and US-based neobank MoneyLion. While MoneyLion decided to pull out of the partnership last May, it seems the former is still launching AEON Bank in Malaysia on its own.
AEON is one of two entities which received an Islamic digital banking licence, with the other one being a consortium by KAF Investment Bank and Carsome, which plans to launch its digital bank in early 2024. As for the conventional digital banking licence holders, Grab has already become the first to launch to the public with GXBank while Axiata has just announced that Boost Bank is currently in the internal testing phase after gaining approval from authorities.
(Source: AEON Press Release)
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