These services enable customers to safeguard funds, access liquidity, and conduct day-to-day financial activities with confidence, while also supporting the stability of the Islamic financial system.
In the context of increasing operational disruptions—ranging from technology outages and cyber threats to third-party failures—understanding how these services are delivered at a process level is essential to ensuring continuity, trust, and regulatory compliance.
This chapter, therefore, focuses on breaking down the high-level Critical Business Service (CBS-1: Deposit & Savings Account Services) into its detailed underlying business processes, referred to as Sub-CBS.
The purpose of this chapter is to provide a structured and detailed view of the key business processes that collectively enable Bank Islam to deliver deposit and savings account services to its customers.
By examining each Sub-CBS, the reader will gain clarity on how customer onboarding, transaction processing, account servicing, digital access, and regulatory compliance interconnect to support this critical service.
This process-level understanding is aligned with the expectations outlined in the 2025 Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) Discussion Paper on Operational Resilience, which emphasises the identification and mapping of critical services and their supporting processes.
Upon completing this chapter, the reader should be able to appreciate the rationale for identifying Sub-CBS, understand their role in maintaining service continuity during disruptions, and recognise how they underpin the setting of impact tolerances, recovery strategies, and resilience enhancements.
|
Sub-CBS Code |
Name of Sub-CBS |
Description of Sub-CBS |
|
1.1 |
Customer Onboarding & Account Opening |
Processes involved in verifying customer identity, performing Know-Your-Customer (KYC), completing documentation, and creating deposit or savings accounts in Bank Islam’s systems (branch, online/mobile). Ensures clients are valid and compliant with regulatory requirements (incl. AML/KYC). Operational resilience focus: secure and redundant identity verification and system availability to handle onboarding even during disruptions. |
|
1.2 |
Deposit Transaction Processing |
Handling of cash and non-cash deposits (branch counter, ATM, online transfer, mobile banking). Includes updating customer balances, transaction posting, and real-time account updates. Operational resilience focus: reliable system uptime, transaction queuing/fallback mechanisms, and reconciliation methods to prevent loss or mismatch during outages. |
|
1.3 |
Withdrawal & Funds Access |
Execution and authorisation of withdrawals (cash withdrawals at branches/ATMs, online transfers, mobile banking debits). Encompasses authentication, fraud checks, and available balance validation. Operational resilience focus: maintaining access continuity, alternate channels (e.g., ATM vs online) if primary systems fail. |
|
1.4 |
Account Maintenance & Servicing |
Ongoing account support, including updating customer details, balance inquiries, statement generation, fee adjustments (if applicable), account dormancy handling, and debit card servicing. Operational resilience focus: maintain service continuity and data integrity across customer service platforms. |
|
1.5 |
Interest / Profit Attribution & Reporting |
Calculation, posting, and reporting of savings profit or returns in accordance with Islamic banking principles (e.g., mudharabah profit sharing). Includes periodic account statements and regulatory reporting of deposit positions. Operational resilience focus: accuracy of calculation engines and continuity of reporting processes even in adverse events. |
|
1.6 |
Electronic & Mobile Banking Services |
Digital channels’ support for deposit & savings accounts, including mobile app and internet banking functions such as balance view, mini statements, interbank transfers, and alerts. Operational resilience focus: cyber resilience, secure transaction flows, fallback servers, and DDoS protection. |
|
1.7 |
Customer Support & Dispute Resolution |
Services for handling customer enquiries, complaints, transaction disputes, lost/stolen cards, and service issues. Ensures timely resolution and documented escalation procedures. Operational resilience focus: backup contact channels (call centre, email, chatbot) and business continuity plan (BCP) for support teams. |
|
1.8 |
Regulatory Compliance & Reporting |
Ensuring all deposit and savings operations comply with Bank Negara Malaysia and Islamic Finance regulations (including transaction monitoring, sanctions screening, and reporting suspicious activity). Operational resilience focus: resilient compliance systems and timely regulatory reporting during disruptions. |
In the 2025 BNM Discussion Paper on Operational Resilience, Bank Negara Malaysia emphasises that financial institutions need robust frameworks and clear identification of critical services with supporting processes to prevent, respond to, recover from, and adapt to operational disruptions.
Critical services like CBS-1 must therefore be underpinned by processes that ensure continuity, protect data integrity, and maintain access for customers across channels.
Some practical examples from that discussion paper (although high-level, not Bank-specific) include:
Identifying critical business services and mapping their supporting processes, people, technology, and third parties.
Setting impact tolerances for each critical process so the bank understands acceptable downtime thresholds and recovery priorities.
Strengthening recovery processes and technology resilience to reduce extended outages that may disrupt essential banking functions.
In conclusion, the detailed breakdown of CBS-1 Deposit & Savings Account Services into clearly defined Sub-CBS provides Bank Islam with a practical and structured foundation for strengthening operational resilience.
By articulating the end-to-end processes that underpin this critical service, the bank can better identify vulnerabilities, dependencies, and potential points of failure that may affect customers and the wider financial system.
This clarity supports more effective resilience planning, including the establishment of impact tolerances, prioritisation of recovery efforts, and alignment with regulatory expectations set out by Bank Negara Malaysia.
Ultimately, a robust understanding of these Sub-CBS ensures that Bank Islam is better positioned to continue delivering reliable, secure, and Shariah-compliant deposit and savings services even in the face of severe but plausible operational disruptions.
|
Implementing Operational Resilience for Bank Islam: Aligning with BNM and Global Best Practices |
|||||
| eBook 3: Starting Your OR Implementation |
|||||
| CBS-1 Deposit, Savings, and Current Account Services | |||||
| CBS-1 DP | CBS-1 MD | CBS-1 MPR | CBS-1 ITo | CBS-1 SuPS | CBS-1 ST |
To learn more about the course and schedule, click the buttons below for the OR-300 Operational Resilience Implementer course and the OR-5000 Operational Resilience Expert Implementer course.
|
If you have any questions, click to contact us. |
||
|
|