Bank Muamalat partners with Backbase to strategically lead Malaysia’s next-gen digital Islamic banking
Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 20 May, 2024 – In a strategic move towards becoming a leading, next-generation digital Islamic Bank for all, Bank Muamalat Malaysia Berhad (Bank Muamalat) has announced a long-term partnership with Backbase, the global leader in Engagement Banking. This collaboration, together with Mambu for its core banking transformation, marks a significant milestone in Bank Muamalat’s journey to revolutionize its digital Islamic Banking offerings.
Driven by their mission and the desire to create an unmatched customer-centric experience, Bank Muamalat leverages platform technology to innovate towards a unified Islamic digital banking experience, bridging silos, and traditional banking practices. With the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform serving as the anchor platform, facilitating end-to-end processes including onboarding, transactions, financing, as well as backend consumer servicing and engagement, Bank Muamalat is equipped to create customized and unique customer journeys with security, consistency, acceleration, and scalability.
Central to the bank’s digital transformation is a modern digital Islamic banking super app aimed at enhancing its Retail Banking solutions. This pivotal shift enables the bank to offer personalized banking journeys, tailored to unique preferences of its customers, while empowering the bank with freedom and control in putting their long-term vision into action. The goal is to cater to the needs of diverse consumers in Malaysia beyond traditional banking services, including holistic life empowerment features, from financial, faith and the added assurance of security and peace of mind in every transaction. In addition, Bank Muamalat has set its sights on extending these innovations to its commercial and SME banking segments in the near future.
Khairul Kamarudin, President & Chief Executive Officer of Bank Muamalat, 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.”
The seismic shift towards rapid technological advancements is driven by Bank Muamalat’s commitment to continuous improvement and innovation across their products, services, and customer experiences. This transformation is anchored by eight strategic thrusts, among which are Accelerating Business Growth, Enabling Islamic Bank for All, and Enhancing Customer Centricity. These priorities underscore the bank’s mission to not only meet but exceed the broadening needs and expectations of its growing customer base.
Today, Backbase serves over 120 financial institutions worldwide, including an increasing number of Islamic banks such as Libyan Islamic Bank, ila Bank, Bank Al Bilad, and Saudi National Bank. Backbase’s extensive global reach also extends to leading banks in the APAC region, including ABBANK, BDO Unibank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, China Bank, EastWest Bank, HDFC Bank, JudoBank, OCB, Techcombank, and TPBank.
Riddhi Dutta, Regional Vice President of Asia at Backbase, remarked, “Islamic banks, especially in Asia, are keen to enhance their digital banking solutions to stay competitive. At Backbase, we’ve had the privilege of collaborating with Islamic banks across the globe, gaining invaluable insights into their unique needs and challenges. Our Engagement Banking Platform is designed with flexibility at its core, offering pre-built journeys and microservices that can be customized to meet the unique requirements of Islamic banking. Our partnership with Bank Muamalat exemplifies our commitment to support Islamic banks in their digital transformation endeavors. Additionally, we hold a deep appreciation for Malaysia’s vibrant Islamic banking culture and dynamics, which stand as a beacon of innovation and growth in the global Islamic finance sector.”
Bank Muamalat’s holistic cloud-based transformation encompasses Backbase for progressive
modernization and customer-centric Engagement Banking, and Mambu for digital core capabilities. Transitioning to a cloud-based model not only enhances its banking services and product offerings but also yields significant cost savings and operational efficiency gains. In addition, it empowers Bank Muamalat’s developers to accelerate software development cycles by leveraging Mambu’s digital core to meet regulatory requirements and fortify its security controls, essential for a financial institution.
"Mambu is a key player in the cloud-native core banking space, today powering financial institutions across 65 countries. As one of the first traditional banks in Southeast Asia to embrace our cloud banking platform, we look forward to enabling Bank Muamalat to build innovative products and services, streamline IT processes, and craft exceptional customer journeys,” said Perminder Grewal Dallow, Director of Solutions Engineering at Mambu. “The endorsement from Bank Negara Malaysia, the regulatory body for Malaysia’s financial sector, to advance this project underscores the trust and assurance in both Mambu and Backbase. We look forward to a strong partnership with Bank Muamalat as it modernizes its technology foundation."
In this transformative journey, Mambu plays a pivotal role as one of Backbase's leading core partners. The synergy between Backbase’s Engagement Banking solutions and Mambu’s core banking platform creates a robust foundation for banks of all sizes to liberate themselves from siloed, legacy cores and undergo a holistic digital transformation. The Backbase and Mambu partnership ensures a seamless and future-proof transition to modern banking standards with a fully integrated, end-to-end cloud-native digital banking solution on an open architecture. With this combined offering, banks are empowered to meet the evolving needs of today’s digital-savvy consumers and the wider banking ecosystem.
About Backbase
Backbase is on a mission to re-architect banking around the customer.
Backbase created the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform – a unified platform with the customer at the center, empowering banks to accelerate their digital transformation. From customer onboarding to servicing, loyalty, and financing origination, our single platform — open and frictionless, with ready-to-go apps — improves every aspect of the customer experience. Built from the ground up with the customer at the heart, our Engagement Banking Platform easily plugs into existing core banking systems and comes pre-integrated with the latest fintechs so financial institutions can innovate at scale.
Industry analysts Gartner, Omdia, and IDC continuously recognize Backbase’s category leadership position. Over 120 financial institutions around the world have embraced the Backbase Engagement Banking Platform. In APAC, the customers we serve include ABBANK, BDO Unibank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, China Bank, EastWest Bank, HDFC Bank, JudoBank, OCB, Techcombank, and TPBank.
Backbase is a privately funded fintech company, founded in 2003 in Amsterdam (Global HQ), with regional offices in Singapore (APAC HQ), Atlanta (Americas HQ), and operations in Australia, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Philippines, Thailand, Vietnam, Latin America, and the UK.
About Bank Muamalat
Bank Muamalat is a leading Islamic bank committed to providing “Better lives, together” through innovative financial solutions aligned with Shariah principles. With a dedication to create positive change in the financial industry and strong focus on customer satisfaction, Bank Muamalat offers a wide range of products and services tailored to individuals, businesses, and institutions.
About Mambu
Mambu is the world's only true SaaS cloud banking platform. Launched in 2011, Mambu fast-tracks the design and build of nearly any type of financial offering for banks of all sizes, lenders, fintechs, retailers, telcos and more. Our unique composable approach means that independent components, systems and connectors can be assembled in any configuration to meet business needs and end user demands. Mambu supports 280 customers in over 65 countries - including Western Union, Commonwealth Bank of Australia, N26, Banco Estado, Raiffeisen Bank, ABN AMRO, Bank Islam and Orange Bank.