Boost Bank Officially Launches, Third Digital Bank In Malaysia

Boost Bank by Axiata and RHB (Boost Bank), a homegrown digital bank approved by Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) and the Ministry of Finance (MOF), today announced the official launch of its app.

The launch of Boost Bank has been eagerly awaited by digital bank enthusiasts in Malaysia.  Discussions and details regarding the bank having been floating around on the internet since last week.

With Prime Minister Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim officiating the launch and the Digital Minister Gobind Singh Deo in attendance, today the Boost Bank app has been officially launched.

Main goal for Boost Bank

In Anwar’s speech while officiating the launch, he stated that the reason he chose to personally attend the Boost Bank launch is due to his belief that Boost Bank can be a valuable partner in helping the Madani government achieve their goal of digital transformation.

Part of the digital transformation initiative involves increasing the people’s digital and financial literacy, and Anwar is looking forward to see how Boost can deliver on this.

“I will be asking the Digital Minister (Gobind Singh Deo) to present a report of Boost Bank’s achievements after 6 months in the cabinet meeting,” joked Anwar.

Fozia Amanulla, CEO of Boost Bank, also stated that financial inclusivity is a main goal for Boost Bank as well, and they are looking to be one of the few banks that will enable users who do not have an existing bank account to be digitally onboarded.

Features offered by Boost Bank

Part of the innovations being brought upon by the Boost Bank app is the introduction of the embedded onboarding journey, which allows existing Premium Wallet users on the Boost eWallet app to be able to easily open a Boost Bank account in a seamless onboarding process.

This allows existing Boost Premium Wallet users to skip the registration process altogether.

Other features for Boost Bank includes a 2.5% p.a daily interest rate on their savings account, but users will get to enjoy a 3.6% p.a daily interest rate in the Boost Saving Jars, from 6 June to 31 August.

The Boost Saving Jars is a sub-account to help you save up towards a goal, similar to GXBank’s Savings Pocket and Aeon Bank’s Savings Pot.

However, to qualify for the 3.6% p.a daily interest rate, users need to be in the new exclusive rank called “Platinum President”.

To qualify for this rank, all users need to do is simply deposit a minimum of RM2000 into the Boost Bank’s Savings Jar and/or Savings Account.

After the promotional period, the daily standard Savings Jars interest rates will be 3.2% p.a. for Platinum President users

Furthermore, to give users extra peace of mind, Boost Bank is also covered by Perbadanan Insurans Deposit Malaysia, meaning that each deposit up to RM250,000 is insured by PIDM.

What separates Boost Bank among other digital banks?

To be honest, right now there’s not much separating the digital banks. All of them offer similar interest rates on their savings accounts, and all of them offer a sub-account that helps its users to reach their savings goals.

But where Boost Bank might have a leg up on its competitors is the fact that they offer a seamless onboarding process for existing Boost e-Wallet users to open a Boost Bank account.

Seeing just how popular the Boost e-Wallet is in SouthEast Asia, it might not be farfetched to think that Boost Bank might get a sizable boost in registration numbers from their existing ecosystem.