Public Bank Caps IT Spend At RM500 Million As Maybank Bets Bigger

Public Bank Berhad is spending about RM500 million a year on its technology stack, chief executive Tan Sri Tay Ah Lek told shareholders at the lender’s annual general meeting on Tuesday, May 5, 2026. The figure runs at roughly a quarter of what rival Malayan Banking Berhad has committed annually under the RM10 billion ROAR30 plan unveiled in January, and Tay said the bank is “guarding this expenditure very closely” rather than chasing the AI arms race sweeping Asian lenders.

The Kuala Lumpur-listed bank, Malaysia’s third-largest by assets, is using the spend to refine digital products, streamline internal operations and tighten fraud detection, not to rebuild its core banking platform. “Digitalisation remains a key driver of growth for us,” Tay said. “We do not overspend.”

That posture sets Public Bank apart from regional peers pouring billions into AI in 2026. It also tees up the question shareholders raised at the AGM: can a 60-year-old retail bank with 314 branches outrun digital challengers without matching their tech budgets?

Half A Billion Ringgit, And Not A Sen More

The RM500 million figure is the bank’s annual run rate, not a one-off project budget. Tay framed it as a steady spend across digital products, process automation, fraud controls and infrastructure refresh. The cap is the headline.

Public Bank funds the spend out of operating profit. The group posted pre-tax profit above RM9 billion for 2025, with cost-to-income at 35.3% in the first half, according to Public Bank Group’s H1 2025 financial release. That ratio is one of the lowest in the Malaysian banking system, giving Tay room to argue restraint is a feature, not a constraint.

The Diamond Jubilee year, marking 60 years of operations, is also Tay’s last full reporting cycle in his current role. He used the AGM to defend the model: high payouts, tight branch discipline, slow incremental tech change.

• RM500 million: the bank’s committed 2026 technology run rate
• RM9 billion plus: 2025 pre-tax profit, an all-time high for the group
• 21,000: staff across Malaysia, Hong Kong, China, Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Sri Lanka
• 314: domestic branches Tay says are at “an optimal level”

Why Maybank Is Spending Four Times As Much

The contrast with Malayan Banking Berhad is the part Tuesday’s AGM glossed over. Maybank, Malaysia’s largest lender, used its January 2026 announcement to put technology at the centre of a five-year reset called ROAR30. The plan commits RM10 billion across 2026 to 2030, roughly RM2 billion per year, with 60% earmarked for core system modernisation and 40% for customer-facing innovation, per the Maybank ROAR30 strategy launch announcement.

Maybank president Dato’ Sri Khairussaleh Ramli told shareholders ROAR30 “is integral in driving Maybank’s capabilities and performance to better serve its customers and other stakeholders beyond 2030.” The bank is also building a successor to its MAE app, with Indonesia first in line for the rollout.

Public Bank’s RM500 million sits at one-quarter of that annual run rate. Tay’s framing is that scale is not the same as efficiency. Public Bank’s net return on equity was 12.6% in the first half of 2025; Maybank’s ROAR30 targets 13% to 14% by 2030, four years out.

The two banks have ended up at very different points on the spend-versus-output curve.

Where Public Bank’s Half Billion Actually Goes

Tay grouped the spend into four buckets at the AGM. Each is incremental rather than a from-scratch rebuild, and the bank does not publish a line-item technology budget breakdown on its Public Bank corporate information page.

The categories below are drawn from Tay’s remarks at the AGM and prior shareholder communications.

• Digital products: refining the MyPB App and MyPB Online platforms, both of which posted active-user growth of 4% to 8% in 2025
• Process automation: digitising back-office workflows the bank says will not lead to job cuts
• Fraud controls: AI-based monitoring of customer activity, real-time alerts and malware detection at the device level
• Fintech partnerships: external collaborations to fill capability gaps without buying or building from scratch

AI Already Lives Inside Public Bank’s Fraud Engine

The bank’s most concrete AI deployment so far is in fraud prevention, not customer experience. Tay said the system analyses transaction patterns, triggers alerts when behaviour deviates and flags malware on customer devices.

Industry-wide, Malaysian banks blocked over RM399 million in attempted fraudulent transactions in 2024, against a backdrop set by Bank Negara Malaysia’s Financial Sector Blueprint 2022-2026. The central bank and PayNet, the country’s payment systems operator, plan to roll out a national AI fraud-detection layer in 2026.

The fraud framing doubles as a hedge. Dr Adnan Zaylani Mohamad Zahid, Assistant Governor of Bank Negara Malaysia, has warned lenders not to lean too hard on machine-learning models, in a 2024 Bank for International Settlements speech on banking in the era of generative AI.

“Human judgment must remain central to risk management oversight.”

That message has clearly landed at Public Bank. Tay called safeguarding customer data “a key priority,” and the bank has avoided publicising any generative-AI tools for customer service or credit decisioning, two domains where regional peers are already moving.

The result is an AI strategy that is narrow, defensive and audited. It also leaves a gap several Malaysian peers are now stepping into.

The 314 Branches Tay Refuses To Close

The most striking line of the AGM was not about technology. It was about what won’t change. Tay said the 314 domestic branches and 21,000 staff are at “an optimal level” and that the bank has no plan to swap people for machines.

That stance is now an outlier in Asia. HSBC, DBS, OCBC and several Malaysian peers have trimmed branch footprints since 2022, redirecting savings into apps and contact-centre automation. Public Bank’s branch density relative to book size remains one of the highest among Malaysia’s Big Four lenders.

Tay’s argument: the branch network is a customer-trust moat, not a cost line. Branches handle wealth-management onboarding, mortgage paperwork and SME relationship banking, work that converts at higher margins than app-only retail accounts.

The Five Digital Banks Hunting Public Bank’s Customers

The competitive context Tay underplayed is the new entrants. Malaysia now has five licensed digital banks operating, all in the market by end-2025.

The names: GXBank, Boost Bank, AEON Bank, Ryt Bank and KAF Digital Bank.

Together they reached 2.4 million customers and RM4.2 billion in deposits by end-2025, with about 65% drawn from gig workers and low-income households.

Public Bank’s deposit book runs at roughly RM433 billion. So the absolute size is dwarfed. The slope of digital-bank growth is what makes the threat strategic.

Ryt Bank, running on Alibaba Cloud’s core banking stack, brands itself the world’s first AI-powered bank. GXBank, the Grab-backed entrant, crossed 750,000 customers but reported a pre-tax loss near RM189 million for the nine months to December 2024.

Malaysia’s broader fintech sector is forecast to roughly double from USD 12.07 billion in 2026 to USD 25.41 billion by 2031, a CAGR of 16.05%, per Mordor Intelligence’s Malaysia fintech market forecast.

1. January 2022: BNM publishes the Financial Sector Blueprint 2022-2026
2. April 2022: BNM awards five digital banking licences
3. November 2023: Public Bank launches the MyPB App
4. August 2025: KAF Digital Bank receives operating approval
5. January 2026: Maybank unveils the RM10 billion ROAR30 plan
6. May 2026: Public Bank reaffirms its RM500 million annual tech run rate

Frequently Asked Questions

How Much Is Public Bank Spending On Technology In 2026?

Public Bank is spending about RM500 million a year on its IT stack in 2026, chief executive Tan Sri Tay Ah Lek told shareholders at the 60th AGM on May 5. The budget covers digital product development, process automation, AI-driven fraud monitoring and infrastructure refresh, and is funded out of operating profit rather than a separate capital raise.

Why Is Public Bank Spending Less On Tech Than Maybank?

Public Bank’s RM500 million annual budget runs at roughly one-quarter of Maybank’s RM2 billion annual ROAR30 spend. Tay’s argument is efficiency, not parity. Public Bank’s first-half 2025 cost-to-income ratio was 35.3%, among the lowest in Malaysian banking, while its return on equity sat at 12.6%, already close to Maybank’s stated 2030 target band of 13% to 14%.

Will Public Bank Close Branches As Part Of Digitalisation?

No. Tay told the 2026 AGM that the bank’s 314 domestic branches and more than 21,000 staff across seven countries are at “an optimal level” and that there are no plans to rationalise the network or replace workers with machines. Process automation is being layered on top of existing roles instead of used to cut headcount.

How Is Public Bank Using AI In 2026?

Public Bank’s AI is currently focused on fraud prevention. The system analyses customer transaction patterns, triggers alerts on anomalous activity and flags suspected malware on customer devices. The bank has not publicly announced any generative-AI tools for customer service or credit underwriting, two domains where several Asian peers are moving more aggressively.

How Does The MyPB App Compare With Malaysia’s Digital Banks?

MyPB is Public Bank’s mobile platform, launched in November 2023 and made the bank’s exclusive mobile app after PB engage MY was retired in mid-2025. Active users on MyPB and MyPB Online grew 4% to 8% in 2025. Standalone digital banks GXBank, Boost Bank, AEON Bank, Ryt Bank and KAF Digital Bank reached 2.4 million customers combined by the end of 2025.

Is Public Bank Planning Fintech Partnerships?

Yes. Tay said Public Bank is exploring external partnerships with fintech firms to support its digital ecosystem rather than building every new capability in-house. The bank has not named specific partners. The approach lines up with Bank Negara Malaysia’s open-finance push under the Financial Sector Blueprint 2022-2026.

Tay’s pitch to shareholders amounts to a wager. Spend less, lose less, keep the branches, and let Maybank’s RM10 billion bet prove itself before matching it. The next AGM will show whether discipline can outpace acceleration in a market where digital-bank customer counts are still climbing past 20% a year.