Malaysia’s largest lender Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank) will invest MYR 10 billion ($2.5 billion) over the next five years in technology, data, and artificial intelligence (AI) strategy.
The firm said in a statement on Tuesday that the investment is to effectively build a robust foundation, optimize productivity with AI and machine learning, deliver best in class user experience and enable future ways of working to service customers better and to enable its workforce to be more productive in delivering services and solutions.
The investment will strengthen and scale long-term growth beyond 2030, in order to enhance resilience, adopt Cloud and AI architecture, and modernize core banking capabilities.
Maybank is targeting to deliver shareholder value through continued improvement in return on equity (ROE) of 13 percent to 14 percent by 2030.
Investment in technology and workforce capabilities will be balanced with optimized cost management, improving productivity and focusing on proactive balance sheet management as well as effective asset quality management.
It is noted that the bank’s digital banking leadership improved following its hyper-personalization strategy, stronger ecosystems play and digitalization.
This resulted in over MYR 4 trillion ($1 trillion) digital transactions facilitated since 2020, recording higher digital sales of 88.5 percent.
With digital enablement and expanded tech capabilities, Maybank serves 10.68 million active MAE & M2U digital users with service uptime maintained at 99.9 percent as of the first nine months of FY2025.
The bank said it aims to provide a unified and digital-first regional proposition that enables seamless money movement and liquidity optimization.
On simplifying cross-border trade, strategic partnership with reputable transactions and payments service provider will strengthen competitive advantage while delivering a consistent client experience.
To drive superior customer experience and broaden ASEAN connectivity, Maybank’s internal capabilities will be fortified with AI-powered behavioral segmentation.
This will support the delivery of proactive and personalized engagement while ensuring timely and relevant advice, insights and recommendations for its customers.
Maybank will also leverage digital-first and omnichannel platforms to increase personalization of solutions and engagements.
This will be further enabled by a next-gen app with the evolution of MAE, latest technology and AI regionally.
“In strengthening our foundation, we endeavor to future-proof the organization, shape mobile workforce with a transformative mindset and culture, encourage continuous learning, implement technology modernization, as well as optimize productivity and financial performance,” said Khairussaleh Ramli, the bank’s president and group chief executive officer.
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