Malaysia’s largest independent investment bank, Kenanga, has tapped China’s Ant Group for its mobile development platform as the firm looks to launch a wealth management and financial services super-app.

The super-app, Malaysia’s first according to Kenanga, will be powered by Ant Group’s mobile platform-as-a-service (mPaaS) and will combine stock trading, digital investment management, an e-wallet, crypto trading and foreign currency exchange capabilities.

Kenanga Investment Bank group managing director Datuk Chay Wai Leong says the company plans to unify a broad spectrum of financial offerings under one roof while also making “wealth creation more accessible by democratising financial services for the millions of Malaysians around the country”.

After spending a year designing the app, the bank has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with Ant Group’s digital tech unit “to develop this platform and bring it to life”, Datuk Chay adds.

The super-app is the latest digital product to be launched by Kenanga since it began its digital transformation journey five years ago, with an online stock trading platform and robo-advisor already released.