Alliance Bank uses SAS to elevate asset and liability management

Malaysian financial services group tackles regulatory compliance, enhances data quality and transforms risk management

CARY, N.C., July 1, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Alliance Bank Malaysia Berhad ("Alliance Bank") has turned to data and AI leader SAS as part of a transformational strategy to drive sustainable growth. With SAS^® Asset and Liability Management, the bank has bolstered monitoring and oversight of its interest rate and liquidity risk management with advanced stress testing, scenario analysis and predictive analytics capabilities, enabling it to make faster, more accurate business decisions. 

These advances come at a critical time: Among the eight bank failures that have rattled the industry since 2023, liquidity risk was a driving factor in seven.

The new system's robust daily reporting capabilities, coupled with advanced tracking of depositor concentrations and liquidity analytics, have improved simulations and analyses. This allows Alliance Bank to manage liquidity based on immediate funding needs and fully automate 90% of processes to improve productivity and accuracy. The bank's proactive move to adopt a comprehensive asset and liability management (ALM) solution aligns with its commitment to comply with risk and liquidity guidelines from Bank Negara Malaysia, the Malaysian central bank.

"From a cost-efficiency standpoint, this streamlined data sharing, reduced manual interventions and heightened operational efficiency is forecast to help us realize an annual savings," said Jacob Abraham, Group Chief Risk Officer of Alliance Bank.

Enhancing security, gaining customers
In 2023, facing market volatility and increasing regulatory requirements, Alliance Bank embarked on a four-year plan – dubbed Acceler8 – to upgrade its systems, create a unified data hub, and integrate its risk and finance functions. SAS Asset and Liability Management allows the bank to streamline operations and automate most processes. In turn, Alliance Bank staff can minimize time spent on time-consuming, error-prone tasks, instead focusing on more strategic, value-adding activities. 

The cloud-native ALM solution has helped Alliance Bank realize several benefits and efficiencies. In addition to the aforementioned improvements in system performance, the bank:

• Saw a tenfold improvement in system scalability, availability and uptime, and transactions per second.
• Saved more than 10% on operational costs, manpower costs and time spent on production processes.
• Reduced the average time needed for risk assessment and compliance to less than one day.
• Realized annual savings of more than US$220,000.

"Despite compliance being the primary driver for this transition, this transformative leap in ALM management has armed us with superior visibility into interest rates and liquidity," said Kunalan Pecheadavar, Senior Vice President and Head of Group Market Risk at Alliance Bank. "The project further contributed towards our company's Acceler8 strategy to drive efficiencies, growth and stakeholder value as we focus on providing fast, convenient and personalized solutions to our customers."

"Due to complex challenges in the industry, ALM processes must come with a high degree of granularity and transparency," said Wilson Yap, Director and Head of Risk Banking Solutions in Asia at SAS. "The SAS approach provides a comprehensive package of analytical, computational and governance capabilities, delivering a broader balance sheet management process that integrates the whole spectrum of risk dimensions. SAS' expertise in integrated risk solutions is demonstrated in how we are able to support banks to achieve business efficiencies, streamline operations and better comply with local regulations."

In recognition of the project's achievements, Alliance Bank was awarded the best analytics initiative in the 2024 WatersTechnology Asia Awards, as well as the IDC Future Enterprise Award 2024.

Ahead of the risk transformation curve
Recent industry research indicates that Alliance Bank isn't alone in prioritizing risk management innovation. Among 300 banking risk executives surveyed by FT Longitude and SAS in late 2024, 75% said they will increase investment in risk technology infrastructure over the next year (up from 51% in 2021). Nearly two-thirds (64%) indicated they will augment spending on third-party risk solutions to automate aspects of their risk management processes (versus 43% in 2021).

What did the survey uncover about the use of AI and GenAI in risk management and banks' abilities to detect and mitigate pervasive interest rate and liquidity risks? Download the survey report Transforming Risk Management to explore the findings and chief risk officer perspectives at sas.com/riskreport.

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SOURCE SAS