CIMB wins Best Retail Bank in Malaysia at The Asian Banker awards

16 October 2025

Additional wins for Best Digital SME Financing and Best Green Finance Initiative in Malaysia

Kuala Lumpur : CIMB Bank Berhad (“CIMB” or “The Bank”) won three awards at The Asian Banker Global Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards 2025, namely Best Retail Bank in Malaysia, Best Digital SME Financing in Malaysia and Best Green Finance Initiative in Malaysia, highlighting CIMB’s strengths in digitalisation and sustainability. 

According to The Asian Banker, The Best Retail Bank in Malaysia award was conferred in recognition of CIMB’s strengths and leadership in areas including digital innovation, wealth management as well as sustainable and inclusive banking. Digital adoption is high amongst CIMB’s customers, with the majority using digital platforms as a primary touchpoint, while the Preferred segment proposition was refreshed with a unique regional suite of lifestyle benefits and card (Preferred Visa Infinite Credit Card). Products offering everyday benefits while embracing inclusivity were also launched (Visa Debit Card with travel-based cashback, and contributions to children with cerebral palsy). In the investment space, customers gain from real-time portfolio management on the MyWealth platform and the Chief Investment Office (“CIO”) website’s investment insights, and to reinforce CIMB’s commitment to ESG, green branches were launched featuring energy-efficient materials and wheelchair-friendly access. With its strategic investments in customer relationship management (“CRM”), artificial intelligence and cloud migration, the bank was able to offer greater personalisation, mobilise better fraud prevention and improve customer trust and engagement.

Gurdip Singh Sidhu, Chief Executive Officer, CIMB Malaysia said, “We are delighted with this recognition, and it is a testament of our strong efforts to uplift our customer experiences by embracing and adopting innovation. CIMB’s purpose has always been to advance customers and society, and our infrastructure has placed us in good stead to support rapidly evolving consumer needs by leveraging technology, data analytics and AI to drive productivity, customer experience, market leading innovation and operational resiliency. In the small and medium enterprises (“SME”) space, CIMB remains steadfast to solve and meet the needs of our customers by creating new products and services that will enable them to better close the gap on their financing and capital needs, thereby catalysing their growth further.  We will continue to strive to make things simpler, better and faster for our customers."

In the award for Best Digital SME Financing in Malaysia: CIMB OCTO Biz, The Asian Banker lauded CIMB for its achievements in digital transformation. The Bank’s new business banking app, CIMB OCTO Biz, has been well received, with strong adoption by SMEs. Complementing this, CIMB also introduced SME Instant Apply, a fully digital platform that accelerates financing access for SMEs, which has recorded submission values close to RM500 million within nine months of the launch, with 90% of applications for working capital.

The award for Best Green Finance Initiative in Malaysia was granted to CIMB GreenBizReady and reflects CIMB’s commitment to facilitate the transition of Malaysian SMEs towards a low-carbon economy, offering crucial support that will help them achieve their sustainability goals. This includes essential training, advisory services and a matching service to relevant suppliers and service providers. A key component of GreenBizReady is the Sustainability-Linked Financing for SMEs, under which RM3 billion has been allocated through 2030 and supported by attractive financing rebates. Another complementary tool under the proposition is the CIMB ESG Simplified Playbook for SMEs, which outlines practical guidance on reducing carbon emissions from electricity, petrol and diesel consumption, equipped with user-friendly tools such as carbon emissions calculators.

The Asian Banker Global Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards 2025 for Malaysia highlights the unique discipline that financial institutions in the country consistently cultivated, benchmarking their progress against global best practices. The awards were adjudicated by esteemed panel of judges including The Asian Banker’s global council members.

At the Asian Banker Global Excellence in Retail Financial Services Awards 2025 were the CIMB team including (L-R, from fifth from left) Azmir Abdullah, Regional Head, Sustainable Finance, Group Commercial and Transaction Banking; Jason Wong, Head of Digital Business, SME Banking Malaysia; Daniel Cheong, Head of Consumer Banking Malaysia and Kevin Ng, Head of Sales Channel, SME Banking Malaysia together with members of the Consumer Banking and Commercial Banking teams.