Bank Muamalat & Backbase to drive next-gen digital Islamic banking in Malaysia

By Gloria Mathias

Bank Muamalat has announced a long-term partnership with Backbase, the global engagement banking provider and Mambu for its core banking transformation. This partnership will support Bank Muamalat’s journey to revolutionize its digital Islamic banking offerings.

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, and backend consumer servicing and engagement, Bank Muamalat is equipped to create customized and unique customer journeys with security, consistency, acceleration, and scalability.

Central to the bank’s digital transformation is a modern digital Islamic banking super app aimed at enhancing its retail banking solutions. This pivotal shift enables the bank to offer personalized banking journeys tailored to its customers’ unique preferences while empowering the bank with freedom and control to implement its long-term vision.

Khairul Kamarudin, President & Chief Executive Officer of 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 be 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.”

Riddhi Dutta, Regional Vice President of Asia at Backbase, shared, “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 partnership with Bank Muamalat exemplifies our commitment to support Islamic banks in their digital transformation endeavours.”

Bank Muamalat’s holistic cloud-based transformation encompasses Backbase for progressive modernization and customer-centric engagement Banking and Mambu for digital core capabilities. Transitioning to a cloud-based model enhances its banking services and product offerings and 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, which is essential for a financial institution.