Malaysian Maybank launches regional collaborative fintech sandbox

Malayan Banking Berhad (Maybank), a Malaysian universal bank, announced the launch of a regional collaborative fintech sandbox that will aim to foster opportunities for start-ups and innovators to develop and test new ideas.

According to the reports by TheStar, the bank said that the fintech sandbox will offer essential components for free and catalyze further development of fintech in the region.

According to Datuk Abdul Farid Alias, president and CEO of Maybank, the fintech industry in Asean as being “full of potential and talent”. He also wants Maybank’s fintech sandbox to provide the tools and collaborate with fintech talents in Asean.

“Having a great idea is not good enough to sell a product. Fintech companies need to be able to develop a minimum viable product (MVP) in order to attract the right investments and funding. This is where many fintech companies face challenges – in their ability to move from ideation to a working MVP,” he explained.

With the fintech sandbox, developers who have real banking application programming interface (API) can connect and make use of existing banking functions. It will also provide simulated data for analytics and simulation, as well as development tools to enable them to create new web and mobile applications.

“Our aim is to be the leading platform for aspiring fintech, technologists, technology enthusiasts and even students from anywhere in the world who want to learn about developing real world solutions to ideas that not only come from banks but also brokers, insurance companies and other non-bank organizations,” Mohd Suhail Amar Suresh, Maybank group’s chief technology officer, stated. “Hence, the Maybank sandbox is developed with a simplified and intuitive user experience and is packed with functionality, tools and environments, to ensure that it is friendly to non-technical or expert users.”