banknbox has delivered the technology foundation behind the launch of Maldives Premier Bank (MPB), taking the new bank from implementation to go-live in just three months.
MPB is the Maldives’ first digital-led commercial bank, serving retail, premier and corporate clients, and the ninth bank licensed to operate in the country by the Maldives Monetary Authority (MMA). It launched at an inaugural ceremony attended by President Dr Mohamed Muizzu, who officially launched the bank’s mobile banking application and internet banking portal. Customers could open accounts, transact and access digital services from the first day of operations, rather than waiting for capabilities to be added in phases after launch.
The ceremony was also attended by members of the Cabinet; the Governor of the Maldives Monetary Authority, Ahmed Munawar; the Principal Advisor to the President on Trade and Investment and MPB shareholder, Mohamed Ali Janah; and board members and senior officials of MPB, alongside representatives of the bank’s partners and prominent figures from the Maldivian financial sector.
Commenting on the launch of MPB, Arah Sadava, CEO and Managing Director of Maldives Premier Bank, stated: “We built this bank to serve sectors that carry the Maldivian economy, tourism, trade, infrastructure – and those clients are not going to wait around while we build capability in stages. Being digital-first only means something if it’s true on opening day. Banknbox understood that, and gave us a platform that lets our relationship teams do the work we actually hired them for rather than chase systems.”
For his part, Bassem Mahmoud, CEO of banknbox, commented: ” I’ll say plainly that I’m proud of this one. Our teams delivered an entire banking ecosystem in three months, and anyone who has sat through a digital bank implementation knows what that takes. It also settles a question we get asked constantly — whether a full stack can be delivered at speed without cutting corners on security or compliance. Maldives Premier Bank is our answer.
Setting up a bank normally means assembling a dozen separate contracts and integrating them over years. Banknbox delivered the whole stack as a single ecosystem:
●Digital banking: mobile and web banking, digital onboarding with eKYC and eKYB, bill payments, loyalty and rewards
●Cards and payments: card management and issuing, payment switching, ATM management, POS, SoftPOS and merchant acquiring, payment gateway and e-commerce, mobile payments and tokenization
●Lending and risk: lending and credit management, fraud management and AML
●Underlying infrastructure: reporting, APIs and integration infrastructure
MPB is a defining use case for banknbox because it reflects the company’s vision of building complete banking ecosystems from the ground up. Instead of implementing individual products and integrating them over time, the bank went live on a seamlessly integrated platform spanning digital banking, cards and payments, lending and risk, and underlying infrastructure, all operating on one technology foundation.
That ecosystem is the model banknbox now builds in two directions: for established banks, supplying the technologies and integrations to move from legacy environments to fully digital operations; for banks created from scratch, delivering the complete stack needed to open the doors and taking them from concept to fully operational digital banking in a matter of months.
The launch strengthens banknbox’s footprint in the Maldivian banking sector and adds to a network now spanning more than 40 banks and financial institutions across 15 countries.