Early fintech players faced bureaucratic hurdles, red-tape, and lack of consumer trust. However, central bank Bank Negara Malaysia’s intervention changed the fintech landscape in the country. In October 2016, it launched Regulatory Sandbox to provide startups to experiment and work with the central bank on assessing the fintech “risk”.
The sandbox provided a platform for companies like Jirnexu, MoneyMatch and WorldRemit, among others, to test and improve their products and services, and eventually make a mark in their respective verticals. The launch of the Sandbox boosted the confidence of the fintech industry and created an impression that the government is serious about nurturing and promoting fintech companies. This also gave confidence to private players to design and launch startup programmes for fintech.
Below is the list of the all the startup programmes run by the government and private/corporate sectors:
Orbit: Orbit is a fintech hub set up by Malaysian Digital Economy Corporation (MDEC) for startups and entrepreneurs, and hosts a regulatory bootcamp for fintech startups.
Fintech Academy: A partnership between MDEC and regulators (Bank Negara Malaysia or BNM and Securities Commission) to conduct regulatory bootcamps on a quarterly basis.
Digital Finance Innovation Hub: A partnership among MDEC, UN Capital Development Fund and BNM to accelerate innovation within the financial sector.
MyFintechWeek: Hosted by BNM, MyFintech Week brings together industry movers and shakers in the fields of finance and technology for meaningful exchanges to shape the future of financial services.
Islamic Digital Economy: Helps fintech startups make their financial products more Shariah-compliant by tapping into the global Islamic economy.
HLB Launchpad: The HLB LaunchPad by HongLeong Bank is a platform to nurture new ideas and talent from fintech and tech startups that will reinvent the way we bank today.
MayBank Fintech: A programme conceived in 2015 to attract companies to collaborate their fintech ideas and products with Maybank.
CIMB Fintech: Launched in 2017, the programme aims to provoke, incubate and execute ideas that will either redefine or enhance CIMB’s products and service.
Sunway Money: A subsidiary of Malaysian conglomerate Sunway Group, Sunway Money is an online and licensed remittance house that enables you to send money overseas for a nominal fee.
The Finlab: The FinLab powered by UOB operates acceleration programmes for fintech companies.
Openlab Innovation Challenge: The programme run by HSBC aims to attract new talents, startups, designers, digital innovators and developers from all industries with innovative digital ideas to solve real-life retail banking challenges.
Financial Innovation Lab: Funded by the MetLife Foundation, Financial Innovation Lab is running the B40 Challenge to find solutions that could drive usage of financial services by lower and middle-income customers in Malaysia (or the B40 population) beyond access to bank accounts.
SuperCharger: A fintech accelerator dedicated to both early-stage and scale-up startups (in partnership with MDEC).
1337 Ventures: An accelerator and early-stage venture capital, focused on doing pre-seed and seed-stage investments (in partnership with MDEC).
For more details, read our Fintech Malaysia Ecosystem Report 2019.
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