Hong Leong Islamic Bank (HLISB) has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with GoBarakah to establish a new FinTech ecosystem aimed at channelling donations and funds to underserved communities.

Formed under the PayNet Cambah programme by Payments Network Malaysia Sdn Bhd (PayNet), the partnership underscores the Bank’s commitment to strengthening its Value-Based Intermediation (VBI) initiatives, seamlessly integrating VBI principles into its Shariah-compliant propositions and business strategies.

GoBarakah is an award-winning FinTech platform that facilitates corporate and public donations—also known as ‘funds for good’—by converting them into e-vouchers. This ensures that assets in charitable and philanthropic initiatives remain streamlined, traceable, and transparent.

Through this partnership, HLISB is building a FinTech-powered ecosystem to enhance the delivery of social financing to underserved communities, further digitalising its VBI and community investment initiatives.

Dafinah Ahmed Hilmi, Chief Executive Officer of HLISB, said: “At HLISB, we believe in the power of strategic collaboration to drive collective impact. In line with our vision of being a digital-first, community-focused bank, we are committed to partnering with key industry players to improve our banking solutions, expand our reach, and better engage with the communities we serve.

“This partnership marks a significant step towards strengthening our responsible banking initiatives and further advancing our VBI ecosystem.

“To us, VBI is not just about community investment—it is about fostering trust with our customers, the community, and industry stakeholders. A fundamental aspect of our VBI philosophy is transparency and responsible disclosures, ensuring that we uphold industry standards and keep stakeholders informed of our progress.

“With this in mind, we continuously seek innovative ways to integrate social impact into our core business operations and strategies. Partnering with GoBarakah is a valuable addition to our VBI ecosystem, allowing us to conduct our social financing initiatives within a digital platform, ensuring consistency and transparency.”

Firdaus Mohamed, Chief Executive Officer of GoBarakah, highlighted that the partnership marks a significant milestone in the platform’s expansion: “As a FinTech platform, our goal is to digitalise the social financing process, making it more accessible and transparent for underserved communities to receive the support they need.

“By creating a seamless, digital ecosystem, corporations can fund and donate to social enterprises, welfare homes, and communities while tracking when, how, and where the funds are utilised.

“This ensures financing remains transparent, responsible, and, most importantly, directly addresses the needs of its beneficiaries. Through this collaboration with HLISB, we hope to further enable and facilitate trusted transactions that empower more communities in the future.”

As part of this new collaboration, HLISB has launched its pilot social financing programme with GoBarakah, with its first recipient being SURI Inspirasi (“SURI”). SURI is a social enterprise dedicated to promoting a zero-waste lifestyle, empowering underprivileged families and single mothers to build sustainable businesses by upcycling discarded fabrics into unique fashion items.

Through a combination of partial funding from Bank Negara Malaysia’s (“BNM”) iTEKAD programme and its internal resources, HLISB will support 100 families in Langkawi by equipping them with skills, helping them grow their businesses, and enabling them to generate a stable income. This initiative fosters entrepreneurship within the community while reducing textile waste in Malaysia.

Farhan Ahmad, Group Chief Executive Officer of PayNet, said:“The PayNet Cambah program focuses on growing communities and creating the much-needed sustainable cycles of prosperity among unserved communities.

“This can only be achieved through collaboration with various stakeholders to meet different needs as these communities grow and mature from unbankable to financially self-sustainable, whilst delivering positive social and environmental impact.

“As the Langkawi community we nurtured takes on the next phase to financial independence, collaborators like HLISB who support their banking needs and GoBarakah providing traceability of benefit payments are essential to enable them to achieve a sustained growth trajectory. This will invariably result in shared prosperity.”

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