Malaysian Bank Extends Service Offering To Emerging Affluent, HNWIs

Vanessa Doctor

7 June 2011

Malaysia's Bank Simpanan Nasional is expanding its service offering to include mass affluent and high net worth clients, a report by The Star reveals.

"As a retail bank, we offer total banking products and services to our customers who are predominantly those who might not necessarily have the opportunity to bank with the usual banks and, on the same token, expanding to mass affluent and HNW segments," Joannita Zaleha Yusof, the bank's head of corporate services, was quoted as having said.

BSN is reportedly aiming to boost its market penetration to a 25 per cent share of the government sector for personal loans, among others. It is also preparing for the launch of several branchless banking services to capture potential clients in "un-banked" locations.

To date, BSN has 385 branches all over the country.

According to the latest count by Forbes, Malaysia's economy went up 7.2 per cent in 2010 due mostly to rising commodities, thus propelling the collective wealth of country's 40 richest people forward by $11.1 billion to a total of $62.1 billion. Malaysia's richest man, Robert Kuok, is worth $12.5 billion.