AFFIN Group and Baiduri Bank expand Malaysia-Brunei banking ties

AFFIN Group and Baiduri Bank have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to expand cross-border banking services between Malaysia and Brunei. The partnership aims to create a direct financial corridor by combining AFFIN’s Malaysian network with Baiduri Bank’s domestic presence in Brunei. The collaboration will explore various sectors, including commercial and retail banking, trade finance, investment banking, asset management, and treasury services.

In the Philippines, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) has issued new guidelines to support the digitalization of rural banks. Under the RBSP Digitalization Technical Assistance programme, qualified rural banks can apply for funded assistance to transition from legacy IT systems to cloud-based Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) core banking platforms. The support covers data migration, integration, testing, training, and cloud infrastructure maintenance to improve the sector's competitiveness.