Digital Banks In Malaysia (Oct 2025)

 

Since Bank Negara gave out five digital bank licenses on April 2022, finally all 5 digital banks are all up and running now.

GX Bank, backed by its experienced shareholders, won the race to become Malaysia's first ever pure digital bank in Sep 2023, followed by Boost Bank in Jan 2024 and AEON Bank in May 2024.

KAF Digital Bank & Ryt Bank just recently joined the ranks in Aug 2025.

AEON Bank and KAF Digital Bank are Islamic digital banks while the others are not.

Lets see who are behind all these 5 digital banks.

Digital Banks	Shareholders
GX Bank	GXS Bank (Grab & Singtel), Kuok Group
Boost Bank	Boost (Axiata), RHB Bank
Ryt Bank	YTL Digital Capital, Sea Limited, Datuk Syed Budriz Putra Jamalullail
AEON Bank	AEON FS (Japan), AEON CS (MAS)
KAF Digital Bank	KAF, Carsome, MoneyMatch, Jirnexu, StoreHub

Digital banks not only compete with each others, they also face competition from well-established large conventional banks for savings and loans.

Most conventional banks have their own version of digital banking now and there is no need to visit a branch to open an account or apply for simple loans.

If conventional banks have the features of digital banks, then why is there a need to have pure digital banks? The presence of physical branches of conventional banks might be an advantage compared to digital banks.

Anyway, without opening branches and hiring too many employees, digital banks seem to have the advantage of lower cost.

Will they turn this advantage into higher savings interest and lower loan interest to attract customers?

All the digital banks started with personal banking and now the pioneers GX Bank, Boost Bank & AEON Bank have already started providing personal and business loans or financing.

GX Bank even offers insurance products such as car & travel insurance, and the new cyber fraud protection plan.

Anyway, all 5 digital banks are PIDM members so consumers' deposits are protected up to RM250,000 in each bank.

Here, I will provide simple comparison among those 5 digital banks. 

Savings Account

Digital Banks	Savings account	Bonus	Special	Promotional
GX Bank	2.00%	2.58% - 3.18%
Boost Bank	2.50%	3.00%	3.30%
Ryt Bank	3.00%	3.00%		4.00%
AEON Bank	0.25%	0.25%		3.00%
KAF Digital Bank	5.00% - 3.00%

As for normal savings account, at the moment KAF Digital Bank has the best hibah rate (gift) at 5.00% pa for the first RM2,000, followed by 3.00% pa for savings above RM2,000. The return is regarded as gift in Islamic banking context.

However, this rate is not guaranteed and might change from time to time according to the bank's discretion.

KAF Digital Bank has 2 types of savings account-i: normal and premium. The main difference seems to be the daily transaction limit.

Ryt Bank has a decent interest rate for its main savings account with 3.00% pa, followed by Boost Bank at 2.50% pa and GX Bank at 2.00% pa. AEON Bank savings account-i has the lowest profit rate at 0.25%.

These interest or profit rates of savings account will change in the future, depending on the bank's promotional activity and the OPR.

To attract customers, digital banks introduce special or bonus savings tools that carry higher interest rate.

GX Bank calls it "Bonus Pocket" in which customers place money into it without withdrawing for two or three months just like a fixed deposit.

Bonus Pocket's interest rate is 2.58% pa for 2-month tenure and 3.18% pa for 3-month tenure. Each customer can have up to 2 Bonus Pockets with maximum RM25,000 in each of them.

Early withdrawal will still get customers the basic 2% interest rate. The bonus interest will be credited at the end of the Bonus Pocket savings tenure.

Boost Bank special savings tool is "Savings Jar", with decent interest rate of 3.00% pa without lock-in period. The maximum amount of deposit is RM1 million.

Customers can have up to 8 Savings Jars, each with a special purpose such as "car purchase", "travel", "education" etc.

Boost Bank also creates "Special Jars" with higher interest rate of 3.3% pa. Customers have to spend at eligible partners monthly via Boost app to be eligible for the higher rate.

Ryt Bank has a "Save Pocket" or "Ryt pocket" but its interest rate is similar to its savings account at 3.00% pa.

However, "Save Pocket" has a promotional interest rate of 4.00% pa for the first RM20,000 now, only effective until 30th November 2025.

AEON Bank has its "Savings Pot" and currently has a promotional rate of 3.00% pa which is also effective until 30th November 2025.

After the promotion, its prevailing profit rate is published at just 0.25% pa.

Overall, the savings interest rate offered by digital banks at the moment is much better than conventional bank's savings account & fixed deposit interest rate of approximately 0.25% pa and 2.2% pa respectively.

Debit Cards (physical card)

Fees (RM)	Issuance	Annual	Replacement	ATM Withdrawal
GX Bank	12*	0	12*	1*
Boost Bank	0	8	12	1
Ryt Bank	12#	0	12	1#
AEON Bank	12	8	12	1
KAF Digital Bank		12^		5^

For those who still need some cash, a debit card is essential.

GX Bank debit card (Master) issuance fee & card replacement fee of RM12 (*) will be waived for accounts that maintain an average balance of RM1,000 or more for 30 consecutive days from the date of issuance. 

The RM1 ATM withdrawal fee waiver (*) is only for the first withdrawal of each month, but this promotion is only until 6th November 2025. 

For Ryt Bank debit card (Visa), currently there is promotional fee waiver for card issuance and ATM withdrawal (#) until 30th November 2025. Its original issuance fee and ATM withdrawal fee are at RM12 & RM1 respectively.

For Boost Bank debit card (Master), there is no issuance fee and the annual fee of RM8 will be waived for the first year. 

AEON Bank debit card-i (Visa) also carries an annual fee of RM8 and there will be a RM12 issuance and replacement fee.

AEON Bank offers 1x AEON points for all spending with its debit card-i, with 2-3x more points awarded when spending at participating outlets, which is like an AEON member card. 

Currently there is an 8x AEON points promotion on grocery spending which lasts until 31 December 2025. Two hundreds AEON points can be converted to RM1.

KAF Digital Bank's debit card-i (Visa) has an annual fee of RM12 (^) but it will be waived for its premium savings account-i holders. 

Its ATM withdrawal fee is "up to RM5 per withdrawal via ATM with Visa network". I'm not sure whether it can be used at ATM with MEPS or not.

At the time of writing, Boost Bank has got an attractive promotional campaign for its debit card from 1st Oct 2025 to 31st Mac 2026.

During this time, new Boost Bank customers who apply for and activate their debit card and make at least 2 transactions during the campaign period can earn an RM10 reward.

This RM10 reward campaign is limited to the first 40,000 eligible participants only.

Besides, there will be a 2% cashback for all transactions using the debit card (except e-wallet top-ups, cash withdrawals, fund transfers, refunds).

There is no minimum spend required to qualify for the cashback but the cashback is capped to RM30 per month, subject to campaign cap of RM80,000 per month on a first-come, first served basis.

Would you open a new digital bank account? If yes, which digital bank is better?

To me, the only thing attractive about it now is the 3% pa interest rate, but I'm not sure how long this kind of rate can sustain.

Most conventional banks do offer higher fixed deposit rate of between 3%-4% pa but they usually require fresh fund transfer from other banks, unless you are their "premier customer".

You'll need to move your fund around and end up having accounts in multiple banks, which is kind of troublesome to me.

Besides, there are other simple ways to get 3+% pa from money market or low-risk funds offered by platforms such as TNG GO+, BoostMyMoney, StashAway Simple, Moomoo Cash Plus etc.

Pure digital banks in Malaysia are still in their very infancy stage and all are surely still operating at a loss. It will take time for them to build their assets in order to offer huge loans to their customers.

If they offer attractive cash back credit card, then I will become their customer.