The Malaysian Ministry of Housing and Local Government has unveiled new guidelines that will allow fintechs in the country to provide loans digitally on their platforms, media reports said.
So far, eight firms have been given permission to provide digital loans. They are Axiata Digital Capital, BigPay Later, Grabfin Operations (M), GHL Payments, Presto Credit, JCL Credit Leasing, Fortune Tree Capital, and Hoop Fintech.
Zuraida Kamaruddin, who serves as the Minister of Housing and Local Government, said that these new guidelines formed with microentrepreneurs that struggle to secure loans through the traditional banking system.
He further said that more fintechs will be granted permission to offer digital loans in Malaysia. Currently, there are 4572 licensed moneylenders in Malaysia with the largest bulk of it coming from Sabah with roughly 1,600 operators.
In this regard, Danny Leong, group chief executive officer at GHL Berhad told the media, “This would help GHL to grow our micro-lending business much faster and at a lower cost. This reduction in cost could then be transferred to borrowers through lower interest rates as well as smaller lending amounts, hence serving the SME, MSME and the B40 segments.”
Last month, United Overseas Bank Malaysia (UOB) launched Mighty Insights, an artificial intelligence (AI)-based digital banking service to help its customers better manage their finances. Mighty Insights will provide customers with personalised insights based on their banking and spending patterns, which will enable them to track and to manage their savings and expenses in a much better and efficient way.