HLISB Strengthens VBI Initiatives, Collaborates with PayNet & GoBarakah on a New FinTech Ecosystem
Hong Leong Islamic Bank Strengthens Value-Based Intermediation Initiatives,
Collaborates with PayNet and GoBarakah on a New FinTech Ecosystem
Through its pilot program, the Bank will channel funding from BNM’s iTekad program towards SURI Inspirasi, supporting underserved Langkawi families towards financial self-sustainability
Dafinah Ahmed Hilmi (Right) and Firdaus Mohamed, CEO of GoBarakah (Left) at the MOU signing ceremony between HLISB and GoBarakah.
KUALA LUMPUR, 4 MARCH 2025 - Hong Leong Islamic Bank (“HLISB” or the “Bank”) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) with GoBarakah, with plans to build a new FinTech ecosystem that channels donations and funds to underserved communities. The partnership, formed under the PayNet Cambah program by Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (“PayNet”), underscores the Bank’s commitment to enhancing and strengthening its value-based intermediation (“VBI”) initiatives, as it consistently embeds VBI principles into its Shariah propositions and business strategies.
GoBarakah is an award-winning FinTech platform that enables corporate and public donations, or ‘funds for good’, to be converted into e-vouchers, ensuring that assets in charitable and philanthropic initiatives remain streamlined, traceable and transparent. With GoBarakah as a platform, HLISB is creating a fintech-powered ecosystem that allows it to deliver social financing more effectively to underserved communities, thus expanding and further digitalizing its VBI and community investment initiatives.
Dafinah Ahmed Hilmi, Chief Executive Officer of HLISB, commented, “At HLISB, we believe in the power of strategic collaboration to generate collective impact. In line with our goal of being a digital-focused and community-centric Bank, we are committed to partnering with key industry players to improve our banking solutions, widen our reach, and engage better with the communities we serve. This new collaboration is a step in the right direction towards expanding our responsible banking endeavours and further enhancing our VBI ecosystem.
To us, VBI is not only about community investment. It is also about building trust with our customers, the community, and other industry stakeholders. In line with this, a key component of our VBI philosophy is transparency and responsible disclosures, ensuring that we adhere to industry standards and keep stakeholders updated on our progress. It is with this mindset that we constantly seek innovative ways to integrate social impact into our core business operations and strategies. Having GoBarakah on board is a valued addition to our VBI ecosystem, ensuring we conduct our social financing initiatives within a digital platform, ensuring consistency and transparency.”
According to Firdaus Mohamed, Chief Executive Officer of GoBarakah, the partnership represents a new milestone in the platform’s growth.
“As a FinTech platform, we strive to digitalize the social financing process, making it easier and more transparent for underserved communities to receive the funding they need. By creating a seamless, digital ecosystem, corporations can provide funding and donations to social enterprises, welfare homes, and communities while also tracking when, how and where the funds are being utilized, ensuring the financing remains transparent, responsible, and most importantly addresses the exact needs of its beneficiaries. With this collaboration with HLISB, we hope to continue enabling and facilitating trusted transactions in empowering more communities in the future.”
With the launch of this new collaboration, HLISB has embarked on its pilot social financing program with GoBarakah, with the first recipient being SURI Inspirasi (“SURI”). SURI is a social enterprise dedicated to promoting a zero waste lifestyle, empowering under-privileged families and single mothers to build sustainable businesses by upcycling discarded fabrics into unique fashion items. Utilizing partial funding from Bank Negara Malaysia’s (“BNM”) iTEKAD programme combined with its internal capabilities, the Bank will be supporting 100 families in Langkawi to upskill, grow their businesses, and generate a stable income for their households, instilling the entrepreneurial spirit within the community while also preventing excess textile waste in Malaysia.
“The PayNet Cambah program focuses on growing communities and creating the much-needed sustainable cycles of prosperity among unserved communities. This can only be achieved through collaboration with various stakeholders to meet different needs as these communities grow and mature from unbankable to financially self-sustainable, whilst delivering positive social and environmental impact,” said Farhan Ahmad, Group Chief Executive Officer of PayNet. “As the Langkawi community we nurtured takes on the next phase to financial independence, collaborators like HLISB who support their banking needs and GoBarakah providing traceability of benefit payments are essential to enable them to achieve a sustained growth trajectory. This will invariably result in shared prosperity," he added.
To learn more about HLB JumpStart, please visit:
https://www.hlb.com.my/en/personal-banking/about-us/jumpstart-csr.html