Bank Islam turns to AWS to power digital banking transformation

• Bank Islam goes digital by utilizing AWS to develop new banking services more quickly and help consumers better manage their finances
• Bank Islam has access to an unmatched portfolio of cloud services through AWS, all of which are highly secure

For most consumers, they were obliged to switch from branch banking to mobile banking because of COVID-19, which has pushed them to use digital channels for their financial needs. As consumer preferences change and competition in the realm of digital banking transformation rises, the trend has forced banks to reinvent their digital goods.

In fact, since the banking industry has become more digital, 88% of consumers in Asia actively use digital banking this year, up from 65% four years ago, according to McKinsey’s 2021 Personal Finance Survey. It was also reported that more than 60% of Asian consumers are now willing to switch to a “direct” bank that focuses on digital technology.

Given that Asian banks are accelerating their digital transformation efforts, Bank Islam, Malaysia’s first listed Islamic financial services institution, has chosen Amazon Web Services (AWS) as its preferred cloud provider to drive its digital transformation. The bank is utilizing the breadth and depth of AWS’s cloud capabilities, including networking, content delivery, and containers, to build the “Be U” digital bank and give customers ways to better manage their finances.

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Bank Islam is developing “Be U” through its Centre of Digital Experience (CDX), a stand-alone division that creates cutting-edge financial services on AWS to enhance customer experiences.

Accelerating digital banking transformation with AWS

By relying on AWS, Bank Islam can now quickly create new digital financial services, such as an app, a debit card, and a loan facility, to better serve consumers. Bank Islam can swiftly create and offer a variety of digital financial services that adhere to Islamic/Shariah financial regulations with the use of CDX.

In addition, CDX has also chosen cloud-native AWS Advanced Technology Partner Mambu to aid in accelerating the bank’s journey toward digital transformation. To power CDX’s development environment, Mambu provisioned its cloud-native core banking solution on AWS in just one day, allowing the bank to build the “Be U” prototype in three months.

This agility enabled CDX to swiftly validate its digital banking technology stack before starting the production of “Be U”. On top of that, CDX is building new digital banking solutions using the Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), which allows Bank Islam the freedom to launch, run, and expand Kubernetes container applications in the cloud.

The goal of this initiative, according to Mohd Muazzam Mohamed, CEO of Bank Islam, is to raise the prosperity of all Malaysians. AWS has given Bank Islam the capacity to innovate and quickly introduce new digital financial services that are significant to their customers’ financial health and well-being.

“We selected AWS as our preferred cloud provider to benefit from the highest levels of security and compliance, without sacrificing speed of innovation. We were able to develop a prototype for our Be U digital bank in only three months with AWS, and we can now explore advanced cloud services, like machine learning, to develop an alternative credit framework to broaden access to customers who would otherwise have difficulty obtaining a credit line,” he added.

According to Conor McNamara, Managing Director of AWS Asean, banks of all sizes in Southeast Asia are deploying disruptive business models to draw customers in the face of emerging digital challenger banks and to ensure that they can acquire and keep top talent. Bank Islam is a prime example of such in Malaysia.

He also stated that “working with AWS gives Bank Islam access to an unmatched portfolio of cloud services with the highest levels of security so they can deliver intuitive customer solutions quickly, securely, and at scale. We are proud to support Bank Islam on their journey to develop new digital business solutions to better serve Malaysians.”

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