KUALA LUMPUR: Pertama Digital Bhd
has partnered Crowdo Holdings Pte Ltd as its first consortium partner to apply for a digital bank licence from Bank Negara.
On April 23, Pertama Digital had announced its aspirations to make its foray into digital banking via a joint venture to apply for the license from the central bank.
The application deadline for the licence is June 30, 2021.
According to a statement issued by Pertama Digital, Crowdo is an SME-focused neobank with an AI-powered credit scoring engine specialised for emerging markets in Asean.
The company was launched in 2018 and is backed by investors such as Gobi Partners, it added.
"Crowdo brings years of priceless insights and validated turnkey solutions from delivering productive financing to MSMEs that are overwhelmingly operated by Indonesians with no credit history.
"This partnership will allow our Malaysian digital bank to immediately serve thousands of businesses in a viable manner from Day One.
"This is a key part of our strategy to boost economic participation amongst our financially underserved as quickly as possible, while aligning completely with the framework set by Bank Negara Malaysia," said Pertama Digital.
According to the company, it is building a bank that offers responsible financing and intends to handhold customers to boost financial literacy as well as cater for Malaysia's financially underserved.

On April 23, Pertama Digital had announced its aspirations to make its foray into digital banking via a joint venture to apply for the license from the central bank.
The application deadline for the licence is June 30, 2021.
According to a statement issued by Pertama Digital, Crowdo is an SME-focused neobank with an AI-powered credit scoring engine specialised for emerging markets in Asean.
The company was launched in 2018 and is backed by investors such as Gobi Partners, it added.
"Crowdo brings years of priceless insights and validated turnkey solutions from delivering productive financing to MSMEs that are overwhelmingly operated by Indonesians with no credit history.
"This partnership will allow our Malaysian digital bank to immediately serve thousands of businesses in a viable manner from Day One.
"This is a key part of our strategy to boost economic participation amongst our financially underserved as quickly as possible, while aligning completely with the framework set by Bank Negara Malaysia," said Pertama Digital.
According to the company, it is building a bank that offers responsible financing and intends to handhold customers to boost financial literacy as well as cater for Malaysia's financially underserved.
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