Bank Muamalat to double customer base over next two years

Asean Business Advisory Council Malaysia chairman Tan Sri Dr Munir Majid Interview with ASEAN Business Advisory Council member, Tan Sri Dato’ Dr. Mohd Munir Abdul Majid

KUALA LUMPUR: Bank Muamalat Malaysia Bhd aims to double its customer base to one million over the next two years, driven by its newly-launched debit card, Aisya Debit Card.

Chairman Tan Sri Dr Mohd Munir Abdul Majid said the card is the first of its kind in the country as it incorporates spending with the social responsibility feature of waqf.

“By using the card at any merchant, cardholders are indirectly contributing to the waqf as the bank will set aside 20 per cent of the interchange fee income for Wakaf Selangor Muamalat, without charging it to customers,” he told reporters after the launch of the card in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday.

Mohd Munir said Wakaf Selangor Muamalat, an entity under the bank, would channel the collections for suitable waqf purposes. 

He said Aisya Debit Card offers the usual functions as an auto teller machine card as well as MyDebit and Debit Mastercard, allowing cardholders to make online purchases via local and international online platforms.

“Aisya Debit Card will replace our existing cards, and all our 500,000 cardholders, both savings and current accounts, will be issued with this new card soon,” chief executive officer Datuk Mohd Reza Shah Abdul Wahid, who was also present, added.

On another development, Mohd Reza said Bank Muamalat would join other banks in reducing their base rate (BR), in line with the overnight policy rate (OPR) cut by Bank Negara Malaysia recently.

“We will make our announcement (on the new BR) soon,” he said.

Mohd Reza also said the BR reduction would not have a significant impact on the bank’s revenue.

“We expect only a slight contraction in the bank’s revenue in the first three months after the BR reduction as the business adjusts to the new rate,” he said.

Mohd Reza was also of the opinion that the OPR cut was timely, coming at a time when people were beginning to feel the pressure of the economic slowdown.

The OPR cut would help people reduce their monthly financial commitments, putting extra cash in their pockets to use for other things, he added.

Last Wednesday, at the end of a two-day monetary policy meeting, the central bank announced an OPR reduction by 25 basis points to 3.0%, the first since 2009, to ensure that the economy remained on a steady growth path. - Bernama