Alliance Bank, which is led by group chief executive Kellee Kam, traces its roots back to 1958 when it was set up as Banque de L’Indochine in Malaysia. But its progress, vision and ambition in recent years make it Asiamoney’s bank to watch in the country.
This is particularly so for small and medium-sized enterprises. The bank has long been strong on SMEs but has broadened its focus to include micro enterprises too in the past two years. It set up a new business line called Digital SME to serve these micro and small businesses. This has enabled it to compete more effectively with other Malaysian banks in the sector.
The way in which Alliance has married this stronger focus on MSMEs with digital lending and digital customer acquisition is impressive.
The bank’s total SME market share grew to 5% in the year to March 31, 2023, from 3.4% the prior year. Its SME loan book grew 13.1% year on year, to RM12.7 billion ($2.8 billion), and its new-to-bank customer acquisition numbers soared 58% year on year, to 89,000, surpassing its target of 80,000.
Digital