Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia Selects Thought Machine to Build a State-Of-The-Art Islamic Digital Bank

(BUSINESS WIRE) -- Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia (ARBM), a wholly-owned subsidiary of the world's largest Islamic bank by assets, Al Rajhi Bank of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA), has selected Thought Machine, the cloud native core banking technology firm, to power their upcoming next-generation digital bank and strengthen their position as a leader in Islamic banking.

Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia embarked on a multi-year digital transformation in 2021 and the Bank will deploy Thought Machine’s core banking engine, Vault, to launch a new digital bank in 2022 with a range of sophisticated retail and SME financial services, such as savings and financing products.

The unique design of the Vault platform will enable Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia to deliver on their ambitions and launch an end-to-end next-generation bank. The bank will harness Vault’s Universal Product Engine to design, launch and manage a full suite of products on a single, clear architecture.

Furthermore, Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia is building a full suite of Shariah-compliant products and Vault’s product building capabilities will be instrumental in allowing the bank to build and offer services tailored to their customers’ individual needs.

Thought Machine has been selected by a number of tier one and large retail banks and the company also works with smaller, agile fintechs and challengers. Clients include JPMorgan Chase, Lloyds Banking Group, Standard Chartered, ING Bank and SEB.

In 2019, Thought Machine opened its APAC HQ in Singapore and was selected by Standard Chartered Bank to power their greenfield digital banking service, Mox. Across Asia Pacific, Thought Machine has more than 50 employees and continues to execute its growth strategy to supply more banks with cloud native core banking technology in 2022.

Quotes

Arsalaan Ahmed, CEO of Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia:
“We are launching a state-of-the-art digital bank which will be differentiated by its high levels of innovation, customer convenience and reliability. We are tapping into the vast potential in technology offered by our key partners to help advance towards our vision of becoming the #1 Islamic finance innovation bank in Malaysia. Thought Machine has demonstrated that its highly competitive services are supported by exceptional technology and engineering. We are confident that Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia’s partnership with Thought Machine is a strategic decision for the future as we set out to build a digital bank unrivalled in its design and usability.``

Paul Taylor, CEO and founder of Thought Machine:
“We are delighted that Al Rajhi Bank Malaysia has selected us to power their new bank. As a leader in Islamic banking, Al Rajhi Malaysia Bank has a considerable opportunity to launch an exceptional next-generation banking service – and we have no doubt they will succeed. We look forward to working together to deliver on their ambitious and exciting vision.”

About Thought Machine
Thought Machine was founded in 2014 with a mission to enable banks to deploy modern systems and move away from the legacy IT platforms that plague the banking industry. We do this through our cloud native core banking platform, Vault. This next generation system has been written from scratch as an entirely cloud native platform. It does not contain a single line of code which is legacy, or pre-cloud.

We are currently a team of more than 500 people spread across offices in London, New York, Singapore, Sydney, and Melbourne, and have raised more than $340m in funding at a $1bn+ valuation.

For more information visit thoughtmachine.net

About Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corporation (Malaysia) Bhd (ARBM)
ARBM, a wholly owned subsidiary of the world’s largest Islamic Bank, Al Rajhi Bank Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) was locally incorporated in October 2006. Following its official launch in 2007, ARBM became the first Arab bank to start its operation in South East Asia, as part of a Shariah compliant banking group that is instrumental in bridging the gap between modern financial demands and intrinsic values, whilst spearheading numerous industry standards and development.

At ARBM, we believe that the one thing that holds the world together as people of different nationalities, races and cultures are values. Values define us, unite us, and garner trust from those we serve. Deeply rooted in Islamic banking principles and operating on the same platform as its home bank, ARBM was established on the bedrock values of Integrity and Transparency, Passion to Serve Our Customers, Solution Oriented, Modesty, Innovativeness, Meritocracy and Care for Society.

ARBM continuously endeavours to expand its suite of products and services to meet the financial needs of its customers, delivering innovative Shariah compliant financial solutions across retail, corporate, treasury and investment segments. Today, ARBM operates through a distribution network of 16 branches nationwide.