KUALA LUMPUR: Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) has neither denied nor confirmed the validity of a 'leaked' list of 27 Maybank branches supposedly to be closed down.
Group president and chief executive officer Datuk Abdul Farid Alias said he had not seen the list and would not comment on the validity of the document.
However, he said that it is a normal practice for the bank to close and relocate, where multiple branches exist and bring no economic sense.
“This does not mean the bank would not open new branches as such a move is part of the bank’s branch optimisation plan.
"The branch is our physical channel. To us, all channels, whether they are digital or physical space, are still important and relevant, depending on locations.”
Abdul Farid, who said this when unveiling the bank's financial results recently, added that closure and relocation of bank branches were normal business procedure with the best profitability focus in mind.
Going forward, he said the group would focus on products and markets that it was targeting, be it be in the physical or digital space.
Industry wise, the banking landscape is shrinking in the physical world while growing dynamically in the digital space, emphasised by the growing push of financial technology (fintech).
A report published in March this year by American banking conglomerate, Citigroup Inc, predicts there will be approximately 800,000 fewer bank jobs in the United States by 2025, while the decline in Europe will be slightly steeper.
The report entitled “Digitsal Disruption: How FinTech is Forcing Banking to a Tipping Point” noted that the main culprit for a predicted 30 per cent downsizing in the American sector, adding that banking over the next decade will be fintech.
This view was echoed by the group’s Malaysian arm, Citibank Bhd (Citi Malaysia), saying they have no intention of enlarging their presence here, beyond their existing 11 branches nationwide.
As for Maybank, the group had earlier this year unveiled its 2020 strategic objectives, the Maybank2020, aimed at being Asean’s leading financial services provider.
One of the agenda towards this objective is to become the “digital bank of choice.”