Malaysia’s banks missed the digital moment, and now AI is forcing a reckoning, says veteran banker
He believes the real disruption isn’t traditional fintech, where banks adopt tech tools, but ‘TechFin’ – where tech companies disrupt finance from the outside
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[KUALA LUMPUR] Malaysia missed a crucial opportunity between 2018 and the Covid-19 pandemic to modernise its banking sector and become a regional digital leader. As that window closed, industry players now face greater challenges to achieve growth, said veteran banker Andrew Sheng.
“Between 2018 and the pandemic, that was the time for a huge transformation online. Especially during pandemic, everyone moves online – work, shopping and finance. That was when banks needed to go all in on digital, but we missed it,” the 79-year-old former central banker and currently an adjunct professor at the University of Malaya and Tsinghua University told The Business Times.
He noted that while other markets were embracing rapid technological upgrades, driven by competition, user expectations and regulatory shifts, many Malaysian banks remained conservative, slow-moving, and hesitant to innovate.
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