This article first appeared in The Edge Malaysia Weekly on October 24, 2022 - October 30, 2022

RAJA Teh Maimunah Raja Abdul Aziz has resigned as managing director of wholesale banking at AMMB Holdings Bhd (AmBank Group) and is set to become the CEO of Aeon Credit Service (M) Bhd’s upcoming digital bank, sources say.

“[She’s] expected to start in December,” a source familiar with the matter tells The Edge.

According to another source, she resigned from the banking group less than two weeks ago and is currently on gardening leave.

When contacted, Raja Teh, who has been with AmBank for almost six years, confirmed that she had tendered her resignation but declined to comment on whether she is headed for the digital bank.

Market talk about her possible move to the digital bank had been making the rounds since June.

Main Market-listed Aeon Credit, a consumer finance company, clinched an Islamic digital bank licence from Bank Negara Malaysia on April 29, as part of a consortium with its parent company AEON Financial Service Co Ltd (AFS) and fintech firm MoneyLion Inc as its technology partner.

AEON Credit and AFS are expected to each have a 45% stake in the bank, while MoneyLion will hold the remaining 10%.

The consortium was one of five to have been awarded a digital bank licence by Bank Negara. Such banks, which will be launched only in one to two years’ time, are expected to focus purely on the underserved and unserved markets.

Raja Teh, who has over 25 years of experience in banking and finance, joined AmBank in February 2017, initially holding dual roles as CEO of AmInvestment Bank Bhd and MD of wholesale banking. In August the following year, she relinquished the investment banking role to focus solely on the latter role.

Prior to joining AmBank, she was the CEO of Hong Leong Islamic Bank Bhd and had previously been the global head for Islamic markets at Bursa Malaysia Bhd. She is currently a board member of Kumpulan Wang Persaraan (Diperbadankan), the country’s pension fund for civil servants.

It is understood that at least four of the five digital banks could be led by female CEOs, if Raja Teh is included in the mix.

The digital bank led by Grab Holdings Ltd appointed Lai Pei Si, a financial services industry veteran, as its CEO-designate in April, while the one led by KAF Investment Bank Sdn Bhd picked Rafiza Ghazali — formerly the CEO of Cradle Fund Sdn Bhd — as its CEO-designate in May.

The one owned by the Boost Holdings Sdn Bhd-RHB Bank Bhd joint venture has yet to appoint a CEO, but industry sources indicate that Fozia Amanulla — deputy CEO of Boost Credit and former CEO of Alliance Islamic Bank — will be chosen.

The fifth digital bank, a consortium led by Sea Ltd (owner of the Shopee e-commerce platform) and YTL Digital Capital Sdn Bhd, has yet to announce a CEO.

The Edge, in its Oct 17 issue, reported that Aeon Credit expects its digital bank to start making a profit upon 4½ years of operations. “We’re looking at year four and a half to make a profit, and to recover the cumulative losses [of the first few years] in the seventh or eighth year,” chief transformation officer Ajith Jayaram said.

Bank Negara requires digital banks to break even within the first five years of operations.

According to Ajith, AEON Credit anticipates its digital bank being “operationally ready” — that is, having its first product, a particular type of savings account, ready for a test run — by October next year. However, the actual launch date of the digital bank will be subject to Bank Negara’s approval.

“[Our] actual go-to-market should be in the first quarter of the following year (2024). We’ll have the basic savings [account] and current account [products], as well as loan products — microfinancing, short-term financing,” he said.

Aeon Credit’s share price, which hit an over-two-year high of RM15.90 on April 29 — the day it was awarded the licence — closed at RM13 on Oct 20, giving the company a market capitalisation of about RM3 billion.

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