KUALA LUMPUR (July 6): Hong Leong Bank Bhd (HLB) has kicked off its new financial year with its fourth annual HLB Digital Day, themed "Reboot Your 2020", to encourage and reward more customers to continue embracing the digital lifestyle.

Group managing director and chief executive officer of HLB Domenic Fuda said the Movement Control Order (MCO) period has provided individuals and businesses with a live-case test of how digital platforms including digital banking and payments can help them continue to live life and run their business uninterrupted.

Fuda noted that greater digital adoption and digital transformation of the economy will increase the importance of all Malaysians being more agile, adaptive and digitally minded.

"As we settle into the 'new normal', everything we touch and do now will involve a digital element. The need to be digitally savvy and competent is no longer a choice, but a necessity.

"In fact, a study done just before the pandemic showed that 69% of Malaysian respondents were planning to use cashless payment methods more often. The pandemic would only have hastened the digital shift and cashless adaptation," said Fuda in a statement.

The group has seen another significant annual increase in downloads and usage of HLB's digital banking platforms from May 2019 to May 2020.

"As of May 2020, almost 80% of HLB customers were regularly using HLB Connect, the bank's mobile banking app, an increase of over a quarter over the past year alone.

"Interesting enough, customers aged above 50 recorded the biggest year-over-year increase at 42%," said HLB.

Meanwhile, mobile banking transactions have seen an 80% increase in total transaction amount and a 75% increase in the number of transactions conducted.

HLB added, it is the big leap in cashless adoption during MCO that shows how quickly the bank's customers adjust to this new normal, driven by more vendors and merchants offering cashless payment options.

For instance, the bank saw a 13-fold increase in the total amount or transactional value of e-wallet top-ups between March and May 2020, compared with the same period last year.

"This Digital Day, now in its fourth year, further underlines our commitment to being a highly competitive digital financial institution.

"We continue to invest in building customer-focused digital solutions across all customer segments that will further facilitate frictionless banking, 24X7, without the need to have to visit a branch or fill in paper forms," said Fuda.

As at 3.49pm, shares in HLB had risen two sen or 0.14% at RM14.52, valuing the group at RM31.52 billion. It saw 317,400 shares traded.