Suhail Malik

Early life and background

Malik comes from a small town that was part of Mianwali district and later Bhakkar district. His father was a banker. While Malik was in fifth grade, his father got him a first credit card with a limit of Rs 5,000. [1]

Education

Malik received his initial education in his hometown. In 1998 he moved to Islamabad, where he completed an MBA. [1]

Career

While studying for his MBA, Malik started work in credit card sales at Citibank. He worked there for less than a year before joining a data subsidiary of PTCL that managed its data services. At that subsidiary his last designation was country manager for sales, marketing and product development. [1]

He moved to Lahore and joined Wateen Telecom in 2008, where he oversaw the prepaid services. He then joined another company as Chief Commercial Officer. [1]

In 2012 Malik joined MCB, where he was head of branchless banking. He then joined FINCA as head of digital banking. In 2017 he joined a microfinance bank, now HBL Microfinance Bank, as Chief Digital Officer. [1]

National Bank of Pakistan

Malik worked at the microfinance bank until May 2022, then joined National Bank. At National Bank he currently looks after the digital banking group. He describes the bank as a state entity and says it has about 1,500 branches across Pakistan. [1]

Malik says National Bank has done a lot of digital work over the last two or three years. He says its mobile app, internet banking, debit cards and ATMs are aligned with the market. He says customers can open a National Bank account in the mobile app or internet banking. According to Malik, the mobile app has more than 1.6 million users, and more than a million customers actively use it at any time. He says the app lets customers pay utility, phone, school fee and credit card bills. [1]

Views on telecom and branchless banking

Malik says banks wanted people with telco experience because mobile banking involved a major technology shift. He says a WiMAX device cost about Rs 18,000 to 20,000 in 2008-09. He recalls that in 2008-09 telcos already had a retail network of more than 400,000 to 450,000 outlets selling scratch cards and mobile load. [1]

He says microfinance banks began operating from 2000 under a special law, with branchless banking following in 2008-09, and that the government decided in 2000 to serve the lower segments of the market. He says EasyPaisa was the first company to receive a branchless banking licence, in 2009. Malik says MCB was the first wallet in the industry that could be opened over the air, and that MCB Lite was launched commercially in 2013. [1]

Malik says that before 2013-14, about 90% of transactions were over-the-counter at agents, with wallets at about 10%. He says MCB Lite was telco-agnostic, so a customer could open a wallet with any SIM. He says the entry level of branchless wallets had a monthly limit of Rs 25,000 and the highest level had a limit of Rs 200,000. The electronic money institution (EMI) licence, he says, was created to raise wallet limits, and EMI wallets have a limit of Rs 400,000 for customers with high transaction volumes. [1]

Views on microfinance and digital banks

Malik says microfinance banks invest heavily in digital products because they serve masses of customers. He says microfinance banks must serve a specific market segment and cannot lend beyond it, and that anyone can open a deposit account at one. He describes a digital bank as a full-fledged bank that operates without a branch network. Digital banks, unlike microfinance banks, face no cap on how much they can lend, he says. [1]

Malik says banking is built on two transactions, debit and credit, and all products rest on them. He says digital banking is all about changing the way a business is done. He says banks that do not fully digitise over the next five to ten years will gradually become obsolete. He also says banking has changed from manual ledgers to core banking, ATMs, debit cards and mobile apps. [1]

Views on fraud and security

Malik says he has rarely heard of a bank's system being hacked and its money drained. He says that in almost every scam there is an element of greed. He says number spoofing is an old technology used around the world, and that some large frauds come from a customer's own friends or family. [1]

He says banks have worked actively on security checks since State Bank circular 4. He says a consumer has two hours to call the bank back and say a registration was not made by them. He says WhatsApp's messaging price has become very expensive. He adds that ID card details could theoretically be verified automatically, and that many apps collect data on phone numbers or ID cards that can reveal a lot about individuals. [1]

Views on account opening

Malik says account applications cannot move forward until the customer provides the documents requested. He says larger accounts need source-of-funds documents, which lengthens the process, and that it is very important that a customer's source of income looks legitimate to the bank. He says State Bank's digital onboarding sets a 72-hour timeline once all documents are complete. He says biometric account opening in branches pulls customer data automatically from NADRA. [1]

Malik says Pakistani banks refuse applicants unless they first prove they qualify, instead of looking for good customers. He says account opening is designed to be intimidating and to put applicants on trial. [1]

Views on financial inclusion and credit

Malik says the financially excluded need banking services, not any particular brand. He says a person is financially included once their basic banking needs are met. He says a lot of real work has been done on financial inclusion in Pakistan, and work continues. He says the number of wallets has reached more than 150 million and bank accounts more than 100 million. [1]

He says a wallet customer can upgrade from the same app to a conventional account to raise limits. He says many women's SIM cards are registered in the names of male relatives. He also says a common perception that senior citizens and women do not need mobile or internet banking is wrong. [1]

Malik says a key obstacle in Pakistan is that people do not care about their credit record, and that there should be a mechanism that shows people the consequences of a poor credit record. He says the biggest barrier for financial institutions is that nobody cares about the credit record. He explains that one defaulted Rs 10,000 loan can wipe out the profit from many small loans. He suggests that a customer's bill payment history is a useful data point for credit scoring. [1]

Views on payments and the State Bank

Malik says the State Bank has been very cooperative and supports new products and innovation. He says it has shown flexibility on BISP, the Benazir Income Support Programme. He says Raast is free for customers and is a State Bank initiative, and that its P2M QR payments have a strong impact on merchants. [1]

He says a unified QR code can be read by any bank's mobile app, and that a dynamic QR code can carry the payment amount. He says the QR section of a mobile app shows the user's own QR code and offers a scan option. [1]

Malik says 80 percent of transactions are now done digitally and 20 percent physically. He says customers tended to keep deposits at banks where money was easy to move. He says people prefer not to use cash because of security concerns and the difficulty of handling it. He says the next five to fifty years of banking work will be digital. [1]

Timeline

1998

Moved to Islamabad and completed an MBA.[1]

2008

Joined Wateen Telecom.[1]

2012

Joined MCB.[1]

2013

MCB Lite launched commercially.[1]

2017

Joined a microfinance bank, now HBL Microfinance Bank, as Chief Digital Officer.[1]

2022

Joined National Bank after leaving the microfinance bank in May.[1]

Appearances

Frequently asked questions

References

1. Banking's digital reckoning in Pakistan . Thought Behind Things , 2024-06-14.