Correction — verified 22 September 2026
This page previously named GX, AEON, Boost and Rize as Malaysia’s licensed digital banks and ranked them, put Boost Bank on a tiered 3.60% to 4.0% deposit ladder, said the GX Card paid 1% cashback on groceries, petrol and dining and worked an RM5,000 example to RM50, and used 0.25% as what Maybank pays.
None of that holds. BNM’s directory lists five licensed digital banks and Rize is not among them — it is a brand of alrajhi bank Malaysia, a licensed Islamic bank — while Ryt Bank and KAF Digital Bank, both licensed, were missing entirely. Boost Bank publishes 2.5%, 3% and up to 3.3% for three different products, unlocked by spending with partners rather than by depositing more. GXBank’s 1% is for overseas in-store payments; local spend earns 0.1%, so that example should have read RM5. As for Maybank, 0.20% is not its general rate either — that figure belongs to Golden Savers, a product restricted to customers aged 50 and above; the ordinary Kawanku Savings Account most people actually hold pays 0.10% below RM50,000, and its separate Basic Savings Account pays 0.25%.
Sources: the BNM Financial Sector Participants Directory and the five banks’ own product pages, read on 22 September 2026. The article below has been rewritten against those pages, ranks nothing, and carries nothing over from the old version.
Five banks in Malaysia hold a digital bank licence, and most articles about them name four — usually the wrong four. Alamak. Rankings rot faster than rates do, so this page ranks nothing. It prints what each of the five publishes about itself, the effective date each gives, and the date the page was read.
Everything below was read off official pages on 22 September 2026: the licence list from BNM’s Financial Sector Participants Directory ; the rates, fees and card terms from each bank’s own site, the AEON figures partly from its Savings Account-i PDS dated 17 March 2026 ; and the comparison from Maybank’s own rates page . Where a bank prints two different numbers for one product, both are printed and each attributed.
Quick Answer: the five licensees are GX Bank, AEON Bank, Boost Bank, Ryt Bank and KAF Digital Bank . The unconditional rates are 2.00% p.a. at GXBank , 2.5% and 3% at Boost Bank and a 2.05% base at Ryt Bank . Every bigger number carries a condition: AEON’s 3.00% is a promotion against 0.25% prevailing , Ryt’s 4.0% is capped at RM20,000 and needs a stamp card , and KAF’s 5.00% is a hibah already paid, which its own disclaimer says creates no obligation .
- The name that does not belong: Rize. It is a brand of alrajhi bank Malaysia, which BNM lists as a Licensed Islamic Bank, not as a digital bank .
- The percentage that costs the most to misread: the GX Card’s 1% is for overseas in-store payments. Local groceries, petrol and dining earn 0.1% .
- The thing the regulator has not updated: BNM’s own entity page for KAF Digital Bank gives its website as “n/a”, while the bank runs a live site and a consumer brand .
Table of Contents
Who's licensedSavings ratesComplain whereWho actually holds a digital bank licence
One list settles this, and it is not a comparison site. Under the digital bank labels, BNM’s Financial Sector Participants Directory carries exactly five entries: three marked Licensed Digital Bank and two marked Licensed Islamic Digital Bank .
| Bank | Entity on the BNM directory | Licence label |
|---|---|---|
| GX Bank | GX Bank Berhad | Licensed Digital Bank |
| AEON Bank | AEON Bank (M) Berhad | Licensed Islamic Digital Bank |
| Boost Bank | Boost Bank Berhad | Licensed Digital Bank |
| Ryt Bank | YTL Digital Bank Berhad (Ryt Bank) | Licensed Digital Bank |
| KAF Digital Bank | KAF Digital Bank Berhad | Licensed Islamic Digital Bank |
Rize is not on that list. In the same directory, Al Rajhi Banking & Investment Corporation (Malaysia) Berhad is a Licensed Islamic Bank, licensed long before the digital bank framework existed; Rize is a brand it uses, and its own news listing carries the Rize “Do Less, Get More” campaign . Swapping one of the five licensees for a brand belonging to a sixth bank describes a market that does not exist.
Two of the five barely appear in the coverage. Ryt Bank is operated by YTL Digital Bank Berhad, and BNM gives its website as rytbank
The savings rates each bank publishes
Here is every rate the five publish, with the condition attached. Read the third column first; the second column alone is what makes these banks look interchangeable.
| Bank & product | Rate published | What has to be true for you to get it |
|---|---|---|
| GXBank — Main Account and Savings Pockets | 2.00% p.a. | Nothing. Flat, no minimum balance, dated “Effective Date: 1 October 2024” |
| GXBank — Bonus Pocket | 3.18% p.a. (3-month) or 3.70% p.a. (6-month) | Commit to the tenure. Both include the 2.00% base. Up to four Bonus Pockets, no more than RM12,500 each. Withdraw early and the accrued bonus is forfeited, the base kept |
| AEON Bank — Savings Account-i | 0.25% p.a. prevailing | Nothing. The rate when no promotion applies |
| AEON Bank — Savings Pot | 3.00% p.a. promotion, 0.25% p.a. prevailing | A promotional profit rate; the prevailing rate underneath is 0.25%. Up to 20 pots |
| AEON Bank — Term Deposit-i | 3.08% p.a. | A 6-month placement, not a savings account |
| Boost Bank — Savings Account | 2.5% p.a. daily interest | Nothing |
| Boost Bank — Savings Jars | 3% p.a. daily interest | Move the money into a Jar. Eight Jars maximum |
| Boost Bank — Special Jars | up to 3.3% on the savings page; up to 4% on the Special Jars page | Link the account to the Boost app and complete a partner transaction. Only the BoostUP Jar carries 4%, and it needs at least RM500 of monthly Boost Wallet spending. The rate runs two months and is renewed by repeating it |
| Ryt Bank — Main Account and Save Pockets | 2.05% p.a. base | Nothing. Paid daily, no lock-ins |
| Ryt Bank — with the bonus unlocked | 4.0% p.a. total (2.05% base plus 1.95% bonus) | Fill a stamp card: Ryt Card spends or JomPAY payments of at least RM10, one stamp a day. The 4.0% covers only the first RM20,000 across all Save Pockets; the rest stays at 2.05%. New customers get it for 30 days |
| KAF Digital Bank — Basic Plus Savings Account-i | 5.00% p.a. on the first RM2,000 and 3.00% p.a. above it | Nothing is promised. This is the hibah already paid for the week before the 15 September 2026 payment date. The bank’s own disclaimer says past hibah is not indicative and creates no obligation |
Notice what the third column does to the ordering. On headline alone it runs KAF at 5.00%, Ryt and Boost’s Special Jars tied at 4.0%, GXBank’s Bonus Pocket at 3.70%, then AEON. On money you will see next month with nothing asked of you, it runs Boost’s Jar at 3%, Boost’s main account at 2.5%, Ryt’s 2.05%, GXBank’s 2.00%, AEON’s prevailing 0.25% . Two lists, same five banks. And one thing the table cannot show: Boost Bank publishes no effective date at all, while GXBank stamps “Effective Date: 1 October 2024” on its own .
Term deposits are a different product with a lock-in, compared separately in our guide to fixed deposit promotions; the usual next question is answered on the ASB dividend page.
Where these banks contradict themselves
This is the part no comparison table shows, and the reason every figure above carries a source and a date. On the day these pages were read, three of the five printed numbers that disagreed with their own other numbers.
Boost Bank, three numbers, two pages. The navigation says “Special Jars — Unlock 4% p.a. daily interest”; the body of the savings page and its FAQ both say up to 3.3% . Both are defensible, because only the BoostUP Jar pays 4% and most partner jars pay 3.3% . Then there is a third number: the worked example in Boost’s own savings FAQ runs the arithmetic at 3.6% p.a. on a Savings Jar , a rate that appears nowhere else. That is the number the old version of this article picked up.
GXBank, one page, two headlines. The Bonus Pocket page renders “Earn up to 3.70% p.a.” . Sitting in the same file, commented out so visitors never see it, is an older hero reading “Earn up to 4.00% p.a.” . Nothing improper about that — it is how sites get updated — but it is exactly how a stale 4% ends up quoted somewhere, and it is why the figure printed above is the one the page actually displays.
KAF Digital Bank, a table with no rows. The product page carries two hibah history tables. Basic Plus has ten weeks of data; the Premium one has its column headings and no rows at all , so no Premium rate is printed here. The same table also pairs the payment date 01/09/2026 with the week “25/06 – 31/06” , a range that cannot exist, while every other row lines up.
None of this makes these banks untrustworthy. It makes the date the load-bearing part of any number copied from them.
What it takes to open and activate an account
Opening is the easy part; all five do it in-app. The number people get wrong is the activation transfer, and it differs at every bank — the “usually RM10” that floats around online is not any of them.
| Bank | Activation transfer | Minimum balance after that | Who can open it |
|---|---|---|---|
| GXBank | RM20, from your own account, by first-party transfer, within 30 days of opening | No minimum balance | Malaysian, 18 and above, no existing GXBank savings account, holds an account at another Malaysian bank, Malaysian mobile number |
| AEON Bank | Minimum RM1 transfer | Not published on the pages read | 18 years of age; Malaysian, or a Japanese AEON employee meeting the residency conditions in the PDS |
| Boost Bank | As low as RM1; the activation deposit accepts RM1.00 to RM9,999.00 | Not published on the pages read | Not published on the pages read |
| Ryt Bank | RM1, described as the minimum amount to perform credit transfer verification | Not applicable | Not published on the pages read |
| KAF Digital Bank | RM1, for account verification purposes only | RM0 | Open to all Malaysians, per the bank’s own homepage |
Two details there matter. GXBank’s RM20 must come from an account in your own name, and the 30-day window is real ; GXBank is also the only one whose eligibility requires you to already hold an account at another Malaysian bank , which rules out a first bank account. KAF Digital Bank has two tiers with different aggregate limits — Basic Plus RM5,000 a day and RM20,000 a month, Premium RM50,000 and RM200,000 — covering DuitNow, QR, card payments and withdrawals together .
The cards, and what the cashback actually covers
All five issue a debit card, and this is where the old version’s biggest misreading lived. The headline cashback percentages at GXBank and Ryt Bank are overseas rates; a Malaysian supermarket does not earn them.
| Bank | Card | What it pays back | Card fees worth knowing |
|---|---|---|---|
| GXBank | GX Card | Unlimited 1% on overseas in-store payments; 0.1% on local in-store and online spend, including groceries, petrol and utilities. Plus 1x GrabCoins at Jaya Grocer, 3x on Grab overseas | No annual fee, no fee for first issuance, no interbank ATM fees nationwide and no issuer fees on overseas ATM withdrawals |
| AEON Bank | Debit Card-i | Dated campaigns, not a standing rate: 3% with Google Pay up to RM30, ending 30 September 2026; 2x AEON Points and 2 hours’ free parking at participating AEON Malls, both ending 30 November 2026 | Not published on the pages read |
| Boost Bank | Boost Bank Debit Card | No standing cashback rate published. Mastercard and PayNet; a virtual card for online, a physical card for in-store and ATM use | Zero annual fee for the first year; interbank ATM fees waived at any MEPS nationwide and on Mastercard worldwide |
| Ryt Bank | Ryt Card | Unlimited 1.2% on every in-store overseas spend, no cap; 20% off dining at a curated list of YTL Hotels outlets | Issuance RM12, replacement RM12; domestic MEPS withdrawals waived; overseas withdrawal RM12; foreign transaction fee 2% at Visa’s rate |
| KAF Digital Bank | Debit Card-i (Visa) | No cashback rate published on the pages read | Annual fee RM12 (waived), issuance RM12 (waived), replacement RM12, local ATM RM0, overseas ATM RM5 promotional, overseas transaction fee up to 1.20% |
Put the foreign-currency rows side by side, because that is where a trip costs real money. GXBank says zero markups and zero hidden fees overseas ; Ryt Bank charges 2% on the foreign-currency amount at Visa’s rate ; KAF Digital Bank up to 1.20% . A 1.2% cashback arriving with a 2% foreign transaction fee is not a 1.2% gain. Daily limits are published by two: Ryt Bank RM3,000 default at the ATM and for goods and services, up to RM10,000 and RM20,000 ; KAF Digital Bank RM5,000 default purchase up to RM30,000, contactless RM1,000 a day with RM250 per transaction .
The fees each bank publishes
| Bank | Service & closure | Dormant account | Statements |
|---|---|---|---|
| GXBank | RM0 closure, RM0 intrabank transfer, RM0 DuitNow, dated Effective 27 September 2023 | Not published on the pages read | RM0 for statements of the savings account |
| AEON Bank | RM20 if the account is closed within 3 months of activation | No activity for 12 months: under RM10 the account closes and the balance is absorbed; over RM10, RM10 a year until the rest becomes unclaimed monies after 7 years | Not published on the pages read |
| Boost Bank | RM0 service charge, RM0 closure, RM0 DuitNow | RM10 a year | RM0 eStatement; no physical statement offered |
| Ryt Bank | RM0 service charge, RM0 closure, DuitNow waived | RM0, and RM0 to reactivate | RM0 e-statement |
| KAF Digital Bank | RM20 if closed within 3 months of opening | RM10 a year until the balance runs out, up to 7 years; under RM10 the balance is taken as the fee and the account closed | Free e-statement; hardcopy RM10 per request, courier RM5 in Peninsular Malaysia or RM12.50 to Sabah and Sarawak |
Three of the five charge for a dormant account, and two — AEON Bank and KAF Digital Bank — will eventually close a small balance and keep it as the charge . Opening an account to test a rate and forgetting it is not free everywhere; Ryt Bank publishes RM0 for dormancy and reactivation . Those same two take RM20 if the account closes within three months, while the other three publish RM0 .
When the interest actually lands
“Daily interest” is used loosely in the marketing, and the five do not all mean the same thing by it.
- Boost Bank publishes the formula: end-of-day balance times the rate divided by the days in the year, computed to ten decimal places and paid daily to two, with the end-of-day balance taken at 23:59:59 . Rounding to two places each day matters at small balances.
- GXBank calls its 2.00% a Daily Interest Rate, and says the base is credited daily and kept even if a Bonus Pocket is broken early .
- Ryt Bank says its base rate is earned daily on both the Main Account and Save Pockets, but the bonus that lifts the total to 4.0% only applies to Save Pockets, and only on the first RM20,000 across them — the Main Account stays at base .
- AEON Bank is the exception. Its PDS says profit is calculated daily but paid on the last day of every month, and closing the account before that date means no profit is paid at all . Closing mid-month forfeits that month’s profit.
- KAF Digital Bank does not pay interest in the conventional sense. It pays hibah, a gift at the bank’s discretion, published each week after the fact, under a disclaimer that it is not indicative and creates no obligation to repeat .
Read that last one twice: 5.00% is the biggest number on this page and the least binding . It records ten weeks already paid, not a rate promised for the eleventh.
What a traditional savings account pays, for scale
For scale, here is what one traditional bank pays. These are Maybank’s own bands and its own effective dates.
| Maybank account | Rate | Effective from |
|---|---|---|
| Golden Savers, below RM1,000 | 0.05% p.a. | 11 July 2025 |
| Golden Savers, RM1,000 to RM100,000 | 0.20% p.a. | 11 July 2025 |
| Golden Savers, above RM100,000 | 0.50% p.a. | 11 July 2025 |
| Basic Savings Account, every band | 0.25% p.a. | 11 July 2025 |
| Maybank2u Savers, all balances | 0.05% p.a. | 1 June 2026 |
| Kawanku Savings, below RM50,000 | 0.10% p.a. | 1 June 2026 |
The comparison people reach for is 0.25%, which is the Basic Savings Account . The 0.20% figure above it is not a general band either — it belongs to Golden Savers, restricted to customers aged 50 and above ; the ordinary Kawanku Savings Account most people actually hold pays just 0.10% below RM50,000 , and Maybank’s own online-first product pays 0.05% . Split-tier calculation has applied since 1 August 2022, so each slice earns its own band’s rate rather than the whole balance jumping to the top one .
And since Rize keeps getting named here: alrajhi bank Malaysia’s board rates, updated as of 15 July 2026, run 0.67% up to RM4,999.99, 2.08% to RM49,999.99, 3.00% to RM999,999.99 and 3.50% at RM1,000,000 and above on the DuitPlus Savings Account-i, with the DuitPlus Savings Pot at 3.08% on any amount, all exclusive of a 0.01% Agency Fee . Those are a licensed Islamic bank’s rates, not a digital bank’s .
What PIDM covers, and where to complain
All five state the same protection in the same words: deposits protected by PIDM up to RM250,000 for each depositor . The cap is per depositor per member bank, which is why money split across two member banks is covered twice over rather than halved.
Two boundaries. First, deposit insurance covers deposits. Ryt Bank’s own List of Insured Deposits names two products, the Savings Account and the Short Term Money Market Deposit , while its homepage separately advertises Ryt Invest with “potential returns of 6% p.a.” and an asterisk . Ryt Invest is not on that list, and it is that document which answers the question, not the marketing page.
Second, where to go when the app cannot help. AEON Bank’s own PDS points past its in-app support: if a complaint is not resolved satisfactorily by the bank, the customer may contact BNMLINK at Bank Negara Malaysia . BNM gives the address as BNMLINK, Bank Negara Malaysia, 50929 Kuala Lumpur, open 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Monday to Friday excluding public holidays, by appointment .
Walaoeh Verdict
The single most useful thing on this page is that there are five licensed digital banks and Rize is not one of them. A list of four that gets one of them wrong is not slightly out of date; it names a bank without the licence and misses two that hold it . Check the name against BNM’s directory before you check the rate.
Second: separate the unconditional rate from the conditional one. The rates kept without doing anything are 2.00% at GXBank, 2.05% at Ryt Bank, 2.5% and 3% at Boost Bank and 0.25% prevailing at AEON Bank . Everything above comes with a cap, a tenure, a stamp card, a partner transaction or a disclaimer: Ryt’s 4.0% stops at RM20,000, GXBank’s 3.70% needs six months, Boost’s 4% needs RM500 a month with a partner, and KAF’s 5.00% is history .
Third: the word before the percentage on a debit card is worth more than the percentage. “Overseas in-store” does all the work in GXBank’s 1% and Ryt Bank’s 1.2% , and a 2% or 1.20% foreign transaction fee can sit on the other side of the same trip .
And a note on dates. Three of these banks contradicted one of their own published numbers on the day this page was read. This site re-checks these figures against the same official pages on a schedule, and the date it last did so is printed with the article.
Frequently Asked Questions
How many digital banks are licensed in Malaysia?
Five, as at 22 September 2026. Bank Negara Malaysia’s Financial Sector Participants Directory lists GX Bank Berhad, Boost Bank Berhad and YTL Digital Bank Berhad (Ryt Bank) as Licensed Digital Banks, and AEON Bank (M) Berhad and KAF Digital Bank Berhad as Licensed Islamic Digital Banks, with no other entries under either label. Rize is not one of them: it is a brand of alrajhi bank Malaysia, listed in the same directory as a Licensed Islamic Bank.
Which digital bank pays the highest rate?
The five headline numbers are not the same kind of number, so there is no single answer. GXBank pays a flat 2.00% p.a. with no condition, and Boost Bank 2.5% on the main account and 3% in a Jar, also unconditional. Ryt Bank’s base is 2.05%; its 4.0% covers only the first RM20,000 across Save Pockets while a stamp card is active. AEON Bank’s 3.00% is a promotion against a 0.25% prevailing rate. KAF Digital Bank’s 5.00% is a hibah already paid, which its own disclaimer says creates no obligation. Compare the conditions, not the headlines.
Is my money safe in a digital bank?
All five state on their own pages that deposits are protected by PIDM up to RM250,000 for each depositor. The cap is per depositor per member bank, so money split across two member banks is covered twice rather than halved. Two boundaries: protection covers deposits, and Ryt Bank’s own List of Insured Deposits names only its Savings Account and its Short Term Money Market Deposit; and an unresolved complaint escalates to BNMLINK at Bank Negara Malaysia.
How much do I need to open an account?
The activation transfer differs at each bank and none of them is a minimum balance. GXBank requires RM20 from your own account, by first-party transfer, within 30 days of opening. AEON Bank, Boost Bank, Ryt Bank and KAF Digital Bank each list RM1. The “usually RM10” that circulates online is not any of them.
Does the debit card cashback apply to my groceries?
Not at the 1% headline rate. GXBank’s own page writes the unlimited 1% cashback as applying to overseas in-store payments only; local in-store and online spending — groceries, food, petrol, utilities — still earns 0.1%, not zero. The Ryt Card is the same shape: its unlimited 1.2% is on overseas in-store spend. Read the word “overseas” before the percentage, every time.
Sources
Every figure above comes from one of these, all read on 22 September 2026.
- Bank Negara Malaysia — the Financial Sector Participants Directory, its entity pages for YTL Digital Bank Berhad (Ryt Bank) and KAF Digital Bank Berhad, and BNMLINK.
- GXBank — the Savings Account page, the Bonus Pocket page and the GX Card page.
- AEON Bank — the deposit page, Term Deposit-i, Debit Card-i, and the Savings Account-i Product Disclosure Sheet dated 17 March 2026.
- Boost Bank — the savings page and its FAQ, the Special Jars page and the debit card page.
- Ryt Bank — Savings Account, Ryt Card, Fees and Limits (updated August 2026) and the List of Insured Deposits.
- KAF Digital Bank — the Produk page with the weekly hibah tables and its disclaimer, Fees and Charges, and ONZ Banking. Product pages are in Malay.
- Maybank — the Savings Account Rates page.
- alrajhi bank Malaysia — Savings Account Board Profit Rates, cited only to explain what Rize is.
About this guide. Written by an independent Malaysian and re-checked against official sources on a schedule. It is general information, not legal, tax, financial or medical advice — rules, fees and thresholds in Malaysia change, sometimes without notice. Where a decision affects your money or your rights, confirm with the official agency or a licensed professional before acting.