BANK Islam Malaysia Bhd (BIMB) will offer extensive takaful insurance coverage to its credit cardholders under an agreement signed with Syarikat Takaful Malaysia Bhd yesterday.
BIMB consumer banking general manager Wan Ismail Wan Yusoh said under the agreement, the bank would include Syarikat Takaful's Family Plan and Investment-Linked Plan insurance coverage for its Bank Islam cardholders.
“Bank Islam Card is the first credit card to offer both takaful and khairat insurance to cardholders,” he said after formalising the agreement in Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
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Takaful Malaysia CEO Datuk Mohd Fadzil (left) exchanging documents with Bank Islam Malaysia MD Datuk Ahmad Tajudin Abdul Rahman. Witnessing the event is BIMB chairman Datuk Yusoff Nasir. |
He said Syarikat Takaful would cover debts borne by cardholders (credit balance) upon his or her death or permanent disablement due to accident or disease.
On top of this, Syarikat Takaful will pay RM1,000 as khairat kematian (death benevolent fund) to the deceased's family, including to non-Muslim cardholders.
A subsidiary of Bank Islam, Syarikat Takaful provides family takaful and general takaful, and currently operates from more than 102 channels throughout Malaysia.
Wan Ismail said contrary to the conventional card services' points reward system based on purchases made, BIMB rewarded cardholders with rebates of 0.5% to 1.5% annually for prompt payment of their monthly bills.
“The rebate is aimed at educating consumers so that they benefit from using the card services and do not get into trouble with over-spending,” he added.
BIMB early this year launched its credit cards – Bank Islam Card (KBI) MasterCard Gold and KBI MasterCard Classic – which are free from riba (interest) and gharar (uncertainty).
Wan Ismail said the response to BIMB credit card had been very encouraging.
“Since the card was launched in July, the bank has so far approved 35,000 cards,” he said.
The bank expects the number of its credit cardholders to grow to 55,000 by the end of next month, one year after the card was introduced.
BIMB is believed to be the first Islamic bank in the world to use chip-based cards.
According to Wan Ismail, BIMB is the first bank in South-East Asia to use chip-based technology; the first to be compliant with EMV (Europay-MasterCard-Visa) standards and the first in the region to use Multos (Multi-application operating system) smartcards.
