by PRIYA VASU / pic by TMR FILE

PERTAMA Digital Berhad has partnered with Indonesia’s Crowdo Holdings Pte Ltd. to apply for a digital bank licence from Bank Negara Malaysia.

Crowdo launched in 2017 and backed by renowned investors such as Gobi Partners is the first digital bank consortium partner for Pertama Digital, the company said in an exchange filing to Bursa Malaysia today.

Crowdo is a SME-focused neobank with an AI-powered credit scoring engine specialised for emerging markets within Asean.

“We are keenly aware of the increasing difficulties faced by our fellow Malaysians as we collectively struggle to make ends meet during the pandemic.

“To contribute to our recovery as a nation, Pertama Digital is focused on pouring rocket fuel into the post-pandemic productivity of the most vulnerable amongst us. Digital banking is our chosen platform to champion financial inclusion via ethical financial services,” said Pertama Digital’s Director of Strategy, Saify Akhtar.

Crowdo was in the first batch of fintechs fully licensed by Indonesia’s Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (Financial Services Authority) to provide digital lending services to SMEs.

It found huge success in Indonesia by innovatively offering SME digitalisation solutions embedded with financial products in order to increase access to banking amongst the underserved businesses that are the backbone of Southeast Asia’s biggest economy.

“Crowdo’s neobank has served SMEs from more than 30 different industries while achieving a 60% lower non-performing loan ratio versus the banking sector due to its advanced digital lending capabilities,”the firm added.