Covering Disruptive Technology Powering Business in The Digital Age

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 revolutionise its digital Islamic Banking offerings.

Driven by its 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.

Backbase as the Base of a Banking Super App

Central to the bank’s digital transformation is a modern digital Islamic banking super app to enhance its Retail Banking solutions. This pivotal shift enables the bank to offer personalised banking journeys, tailored to unique preferences of its customers while empowering the bank with freedom and control in putting its 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 and Chief Executive Officer at 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 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, notably 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 customised to meet the unique requirements of Islamic banking.”

He added: “Our partnership with Bank Muamalat exemplifies our commitment to support Islamic banks in their digital transformation endeavours. 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.”

Riddhi Dutta, Regional Vice President Asia at Backbase (left) and Khairul Kamarudin, President and CEO at Bank Muamalat (right)

Progressive Modernisation for All

Bank Muamalat’s holistic cloud-based transformation encompasses Backbase for progressive modernisation 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.

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