RHB Malaysia earns its 9th Domestic Foreign Exchange Bank of the Year trophy at the 2021 ABF Awards

The multinational regional financial services provider was recognised for its hassle-free digital FX platform assisting customers with simple, seamless, and convenient transactions.

Acknowledged for maintaining its position as a market leader in the Forex banking business in Malaysia, RHB Banking Group (RHB or the Group) received its 9th consecutive Domestic Foreign Exchange Bank of the Year trophy at the 2021 Asian Banking & Finance Awards.  

The group, headquartered in Malaysia, launched RHB Live FX @ Reflex, a digital platform that enables its customers to conduct online monitoring and booking of real-time FX rates and contracts combined with seamless straight-through transaction settlement. Through the system, users are in control as to how they wish to manage their settlements whilst providing them access to trade up to 34 currency pairs all in one place.

“RHB Live FX provided the opportunity for us to embark on an effective product differentiation strategy in the FX market,” said RHB. 

“Customers are now able to monitor and book real-time FX and time option contracts. Hassle-free straight-through processing is assured with declared beneficiary capabilities and the flexibility of early take-up and settlement,” they added. 

According to the Group, the platform acts as an FX pricing and hedging tool comprising five main functions including Exchange Rate Inquiry to monitor real-time foreign exchange rates in 34 currencies, and Indicative Forward Swap Points to monitor Outright & Time Option FX swap points. The system also includes services in FX Rate Booking to book foreign exchange contracts, and Contract Rate Inquiry to view confirmed contract information, as well as Booking Status Inquiry to check booking status.

These positive outputs were products of the Group’s response to economic uncertainties during the previous year and by listening to its customers. According to RHB, the Group maintained a positive outlook despite the hurdles in the finance sector and focused its attention on providing meaningful solutions to its customers during these unprecedented circumstances. During that challenging period, RHB Live FX provided the chance for RHB to embark on an effective product differentiation strategy in the FX market.

“On the surface, launching new products during the Movement Control Order (MCO) may have been risky. However, we were able to achieve good results by riding on the prevalence of higher online usage by a broader and more geographically diverse customer base,” said RHB.  

Additionally, by further aligning its business strategy to the Group’s digital transformation strategy RHB was able to refresh its Reflex payment platform to include FX transactions, which was based on thorough market research on related products within the industry. Furthermore, RHB sand-boxed their customers’ FX journey by applying digital permutations and data analytics to deliver competitive FX pricing and efficient execution.

“We leveraged customers’ higher online usage under work-from-home arrangements to market and conduct tutorials remotely. This allowed us to launch and operationalise RHB Live FX quickly and seamlessly. The success of RHB Live FX has been noteworthy, with 8,895 FX spot and forward transactions totalling MYR1.46 billion since its launch in late 2020,” RHB explained.

The Group attributes its position as a market leader in the FX banking business in Malaysia to its commitment to its core principle of putting customer interest as the top priority. According to RHB, especially during these uncertain times this strong culture of engaging with customers had allowed them to understand their requirements better and in turn, providing them with the best-suited products and solutions.

“We are proud to once again be named as Malaysia’s Foreign Exchange Bank of the Year and this drives us to be even more attentive to our customers’ changing needs. Customer behavior is fast-changing and to anticipate and to address these shifts, the RHB Treasury team applies Agile work practices that encapsulate deep collaboration amongst our various strategic business groups,” RHB said.

Moving forward, RHB plans to progressively refine the RHB Live FX to interface with other banking platforms and enable it to achieve higher operational efficiency and enhance the speed to market performance for better customer experience. Ultimately, the Group views this as an opportunity – an open window to further enhance its FX value proposition to its customers.

“As part of the Group’s digital roadmap, our Internet Banking (IBK) and Mobile Banking (MBK) platforms will also be upgraded to provide more touchpoints for FX products and solutions,” said RHB. 

“The team will continue to pursue Agile business practices to foster even higher levels of customer centricity and we remain steadfast on our culture commitment of customer first, delivering above expectations,” RHB concluded.