Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad has been named the ‘Best Digital Bank in Malaysia’ at the IDC Financial Insights Innovation Awards 2020 for its digitisation efforts.
The Bank also took home the Silver award for “Branch Innovation of the Year” in Asia at the Asian Banking & Finance Retail Banking Awards 2020. These awards were presented in recognition of the Bank’s innovative Branch-in-a-Tablet solution, which delivers quick and simple digital (paperless) customer experience.
Using the Branch-in-a-Tablet solution, individuals can open their savings account, and activate their debit card and online banking account using a tablet in as little as 15 minutes. For businesses, the Bank has improved business account opening to “1 day, 1 visit”.
The solution also enables the Bank’s officers to attend to customers at any location of their choice outside the branch. Today, up to 90 percent of the Bank’s current and savings accounts for individuals are opened via the Branch-in-a-Tablet solution.
“We designed the Branch-in-a-Tablet solution with the customer in mind. Our project team worked closely with our employees at the branch, studied the processes, and empathised with users and customers’ real-life experiences to understand the gaps and customer needs to bring this solution to life,” said Joel Kornreich, group chief executive officer, Alliance Bank.
Darshiniy Selvaratnam, Financial Insights Innovations Award Program Head at IDC Financial Insights Asia/Pacific said, “Alliance Bank’s approach to ‘phydigital’ banking has well demonstrated the optimal convergence of traditional branch-based banking and straight-through digital workflows for account onboarding processes. The combination of human and digital elements in the staff-assisted solution is exemplary of an inclusive and customer-first model by Alliance Bank. The Branch-in-a-Tablet has shown the best use case of technology in meeting heightened customer demand for instantaneous delivery in financial services without scaling back on branch networks.”
In March 2020, the Bank was recognised by IDC Financial Insights as one of the “20 Best Bank 2020 in Asia/Pacific”, for its use of technology to positively impact the business in three key areas: customer engagement, operational efficiency, and the creation of new business models. Alliance Bank was one of only two Malaysian banks named in the list this year.
This year, the Bank is accelerating the implementation of its fully digital solutions to deliver better customer experience.
The Bank is poised to be the first bank in Malaysia to roll out the electronic Know-Your-Customer (eKYC) solution which will enable individuals to open and activate a savings account, or obtain a loan, conveniently and securely anywhere, anytime, on their own without the need to visit a bank branch or be visited by a bank officer.
“We want to ensure that we give our customers various options to interact with us, and digitisation allows customers to perform banking in a simple and convenient manner. We have designed the digital interface to include instant remote assistance for customers requiring help. The assistance is provided by web chat or over the phone,” said Kornreich.
In June 2020, the Bank launched the BizSmart® Mobile App to enable business owners to conveniently approve transactions on-the-go. The new mobile app provides the convenience of account management, payments, and collections.
Additionally, the Bank is the first bank in Malaysia to launch an electronic Trade Financing solution. The Alliance BizSmart® eTrade enables business owners to submit Bankers’ Acceptance or Trust Receipts electronically via the BizSmart® Mobile app.
“Everything that we do, from building or innovating a product, to rolling out a solution, begins with being empathetic to our customer’s needs, and having the innate desire to act on it. We call this the Alliance Way,” said Kornreich.
