Bank Negara Malaysia governor Nor Shamsiah Mohd Yunus, in an exclusive interview with Bernama, shares more details on the assessment and selection of the five consortia for digital bank licences.

Question 1: Why is Bank Negara opening the doors to digital banks? Given that incumbent banks have also gone into digitalisation, what more can these banks do?

The entry of digital banks is part of a broader vision we have for the financial sector. In our recently published Financial Sector Blueprint, a key theme that we emphasised was “finance for all”.

For Bank Negara, this is about making sure that customers have a wide array of choices in...