RHB and RinggitPlus launch chatbot lending in Malaysia
Malaysia’s RHB Bank Berhad and RinggitPlus – a comparison website for financial products – have introduced “ChatBot’”, the “first” real-time messenger-style platform in Southeast Asia for personal loan applications.
Consumers can apply for a loan via ChatBot on RinggitPlus’s website and obtain the results for eligibility via an SMS. The platform auto populates information provided by consumers.
Nazri Othman, acting head of retail banking, RHB Banking Group, says it enables consumers to apply for their loan “anywhere and everywhere without the hassle of completing and submitting forms at the initial stage of application”.
Once contacted by the bank, customers will then need to visit a branch to further complete the application and obtain the results for eligibility. Once approved, consumers can visit any one of the 35 RHB sales centres or 23 sales hubs that they have pre-selected during the application with their NRIC card to complete the process and collect their personal loan.
RHB has been partnering with RinggitPlus, to enable online loan applications, over the past few years, and the bank wants more as part of its “digital thrust”.
Othman adds that over the last 12 months up to August this year, it has seen an average of MYR 3 million ($713,000) personal loan disbursements per month through RinggitPlus.
With ChatBot, it is aiming to achieve an increase of 67% or MYR 5 million ($1.2 million) in disbursements on a monthly basis. RHB says it is also targeting to grow these disbursements by 60% to MYR 60 million ($14.2 million) by year end.
The RHB Banking Group, with RHB Bank Berhad as the holding company, is the “fourth largest fully integrated financial services group” in Malaysia. The group operates in ten countries – Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Thailand, Brunei, Cambodia, Hong Kong/China, Vietnam, Laos and Myanmar.
RinggitPlus was founded in 2012 and is headquartered in Kuala Lumpur. It is one of several brands owned and operated by Jirnexu, a fintech solution provider.
