Neha Mani, Financial Services Consulting Partner at PwC Malaysia spoke with Jay Khairil, Chief Executive at Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN). Now entering its fourth year of the bank’s five-year Corporate Strategic Plan, Jay Khairil shares insights into the ambitious plan, the challenges and triumphs of this journey, emphasising the roles of collaboration, customer trust and a holistic approach to digital adoption.
Empowering people, the heart of BSN’s digital transformation journey
Neha Mani: It’s been exciting following BSN’s journey. We wanted to take this time to hear directly from you about your vision and mission regarding the digitalisation of BSN. So, could you describe the overall vision for digitalising BSN, and how do you see this digital transformation impacting the future of banking for BSN?
Jay Khairil: We started this journey in 2022, with a five-year plan and an end goal of a digitally enabled BSN. A lot of people only understand technology and digitalisation from a solutions or channels perspective, but they do not realise that to make sure we have these digitally enabled solutions and channels, there’s a lot of work we need to do behind the scenes. And part of which is to also transform how we do things because a lot of the digitalisation work revolves around enhancing our backend solutions, which means doing things differently from how we used to. For example, something as simple as sending a document from one location to another, especially when locations are geographically dispersed, requires a new approach. In the past, we might have relied on couriers or scanning documents, but today, we need electronic content management systems and other digital tools to streamline these processes.
We realised early on that having the right tools is just one part of the equation. You can buy and invest in technology, but without investing in people and equipping them with the necessary knowledge and skills, you won’t get far. The journey is monumental, as it involves a significant shift in mindset and the upskilling of people.
We are very happy with our progress, but there’s still much work to be done. Our mission is very simple: achieve digital enablement in a scalable way while bringing our people along on this journey. Changing mindsets quickly is essential, and the first ingredient is involving and upskilling our people. In the past, we might have viewed technology as a disruption, but today, it’s no longer optional; it’s essential. Sure, people still go to branches today—and we still need them—but the shift towards digital is inevitable.
Technology, to me, is no longer a disruption. It is something that you must adopt and embrace. That’s where preparing the whole organisation for that journey comes in. It’s not just about investing in tools or solutions; it’s about bringing the people along—a mindset shift.
‘Technology, to me, is no longer a disruption. It is something that you must adopt and embrace. That’s where preparing the whole organisation for that journey comes in. It’s not just about investing in tools or solutions; it’s about bringing the people along—a mindset shift.’
Neha Mani: You mentioned that the digitalisation of BSN starts with a five-year plan, and that sounds about right. Because that amount of change—especially changing the ways of working and people’s behaviours—it does require an amount of organisational effort and focus. So, could you give us a sense of where you are in this five-year journey?
Jay Khairil: One of our recent success stories is the launch of our GenAI chatbot, Bella. If you had asked me three years ago about the possibility of a generative AI chatbot to handle enquiries from the customers, I would probably have been quite sceptical about it. But we’ve made significant progress; we had a plan of up to 2026, and Bella is now operational.
To get here, a lot of things need to happen. We reorganised ourselves from an architectural standpoint and made numerous infrastructural changes. A critical part of this process was our retrofit exercise, which involved enhancing our data centre. Without a robust core and infrastructure, there was no way we could have developed any scalable solutions. And so, the core—the architecture and the infrastructure—must be able to support whatever technological advancement we want to adopt, and that’s precisely what we have done.
Reflecting on our progress, it’s clear that the groundwork we laid two to three years ago was essential. Had we not taken that journey of embracing these changes, we wouldn’t be discussing advancements like Bella today.
‘Reflecting on our progress, it’s clear that the groundwork we laid two to three years ago was essential. Had we not taken that journey of embracing these changes, we wouldn’t be discussing advancements like Bella today.’
We are one of the first few in the market to embrace machine learning or regulatory technology (RegTech). Now, you have hundreds and thousands of alerts daily. There is no way any human being, or even a group of people, can effectively manage all these alerts. So, we’ve adopted machine learning. Today it’s getting cleverer, and the algorithm has also improved. These are all part of the new frontier of how we operate.
While we can put systems in place and say, ‘Okay, let’s just do the same thing over and over again for the next two years,’ the reality is that in the next two months, the market dynamics will have changed. If you do not have technology to keep up, you will be outdated.
Neha Mani: Observing BSN’s journey, it’s been a very organic yet decisive move towards digitalisation. The beauty of this organic, citizen-led transformation effort is that you can learn from the first initiative to the second, and then to the third, continuously applying very specific BSN lessons learned throughout your journey. What were some of the learnings and challenges in this three-plus-year journey so far?
Jay Khairil: Naturally, there will be hiccups whenever you embark on something new. We implemented Robotic Process Automation (RPA) for a project, and initially, the robots weren’t as clever as we had hoped. But we learned and quickly adapted. It was refreshing to see our team start thinking about possibilities, about what robots could do. This shift in mindset was crucial, as people began to see the potential of technology. None of this would have been possible without starting with our people. The fear of using and adopting technology—that alone can throw you off any tallest buildings in the world. But getting our people in line was the crucial first step.
Neha Mani: I think what you’re also highlighting is the culture of innovation that you and your team have fostered, creating a safe space to experiment where people are more comfortable taking risks.
Jay Khairil: Yeah, people are ready to experiment with things. If every experiment were expected to succeed on the first attempt, we wouldn’t achieve groundbreaking discoveries. That is what the future is going to be like. My recent working visit to China—it was so awe-inspiring. We went to the R&D centre, and there were 30,000 people working diligently. The level of focus and dedication to research and development was remarkable. They take R&D seriously, ensuring they develop programmes capable of competing on a global scale. Witnessing this commitment to innovation was so inspiring.
Driving the financial inclusion mandate one step at a time
Neha Mani: BSN has always been at the forefront of driving financial inclusion in Malaysia. With the digitalisation of Ejen Bank currently underway, could you share your vision for BSN’s role in driving digital inclusion?
Jay Khairil: That’s a fantastic question. Financial inclusion has evolved; in the past, it meant ensuring everyone had a bank account. As the country moves towards a cashless society, it’s hard to imagine that some places still operate solely in cash—but they do exist in places like Belaga and Song in Sarawak.
Understanding the ecosystem, we approach financial inclusion by equipping merchants with digital solutions first. We can’t simply ask people to use their e-wallets and scan QR codes to make payments. If merchants aren’t equipped, how can people participate? This is where our understanding lies. We approach merchants, offering them QR codes when they open accounts with us, allowing clients to scan and pay. If customers are still paying in cash, it's often because the merchants haven't adopted the technology. We need to reach out to the penjajas (street vendors) and pasar malams (night markets) to ensure they are included in this digital transformation.
The challenge is that the rapid pace of technological advancement has reduced the technology refresh cycle from five to six years to just three. And continuous investment without clear returns is unsustainable. To address this, we collaborate with a telecommunications company that share similar objectives. While our paths differ, our goals align. We want to make sure that no Malaysians are left behind from a banking perspective, while they aspire to power up the entire nation from the infra perspective. Through this collaboration, we can remain agile and technologically advanced without bearing the full costs ourselves. Our collaborators handle the technological aspects, allowing us to focus on banking.
Neha Mani: That’s incredible because partnerships is about bringing, realising and capitalising on your strengths and letting others play that ecosystem to their strengths.
Jay Khairil: And very importantly is to acknowledge our weaknesses. I wasn’t hesitant to go to my Board about our current position. If we ignore this baseline, how can we identify areas for improvement and plan our next steps? Some may view our progress as slow or doubt our potential for success, which is why we need to change this perception.
I aim for BSN to be in the top three for customer service by 2026. While some may find this goal ambitious, it’s important to set high standards. Initially, we did not even dare to register ourselves to be rated for customer satisfaction. When we did, out of 20 participants, we ranked 20th.
And guess what? In just one year, we moved up to the 15th place. I told the team this is a reason to celebrate. In the end, we can be top three. Why not dream and aspire about it? It’s easy to say that, but a lot of things need to change; processes and mindsets need to change. Today, we are experimenting with many of our branches and operations. We’ve been actively identifying and addressing issues in our operations and processes, focusing on the basic, little things, like our printers. Even those make a difference.
Neha Mani: As we approach the end of our conversation, do you have any final thoughts or reflections you’d like to share?
Jay Khairil: Despite all this transformation that we are undertaking and planning, we will not abandon our mandate of financial inclusion. No Malaysian should be left behind, and our financially vulnerable customers must not be excluded from the ecosystem. We want those customers to experience good customer service, good technology solutions and a good banking experience. I think this is why BSN still exists today after 50 years.
The views and opinions expressed by interviewees are their own and do not necessarily reflect those of PwC Malaysia.
