The Great Divide: Why Customers Are Frustrated With Traditional Banks

In our 4-part Fintech Insights series, we’ve explored the entire Malaysian financial landscape. We saw that E-Wallets are the most negatively-perceived category, and that new Digital Banks like GXBank are dominating the conversation (though not always positively).

For this final analysis, we’re focusing on the 800-pound gorilla: the Traditional Banks (“TradFi”).

With 437 mentions, this category (including giants like Maybank, CIMB, and Public Bank) still dominates the public conversation, making up over 60% of all mentions in our 1-year study.

But why are people talking about them? We used Mediapod to analyze the topics of conversation, and the data reveals the single biggest threat—and opportunity—in the entire banking industry.

Part 1: The Shared Battleground

First, we compared the top conversation topics for TradFi against their new, app-first Digital Bank competitors. The results were striking.

The Insight: The battlefield is identical. Customers are judging both old and new banks on the exact same three things: Value, App Performance, and Fees. This proves that “new and shiny” isn’t enough. The winner will be the one who delivers the best on these core fundamentals.

Part 2: The “Great Divide” (The TradFi Weakness)

While both sides are fighting the same war, the data shows that TradFi is losing on a key front.

For Digital Banks, “Value & Rewards” is the clear #1 topic. The conversation is driven by excitement over high-interest rates and cashback.

For TradFi, the conversation is split. While “Value” is a huge topic, it’s immediately followed by a massive number of complaints about “App Performance” (54 mentions) and “Fees & Charges” (47 mentions).

This is the Great Divide. The new banks are building a reputation on value, while the old banks are constantly defending their performance.

Part 3: The Maybank Story (A Perfect Example)

To see this in action, we isolated the data for the biggest player, Maybank (203 total mentions).

The story is a perfect miniature of the entire TradFi category. While “Value & Rewards” (61 mentions) is their most-discussed topic, “App Performance” (31 mentions) is the second largest, and it’s the #1 driver of their negative conversations.

Maybank’s reputation is in a constant tug-of-war:

• The Good: Customers are happy with its value, rewards, and ecosystem.
• The Bad: This is constantly undermined by a huge volume of public frustration over app downtime, slow transfers, and maintenance—all the classic complaints we saw in our E-Wallet War article about MAE.

Conclusion: The Battle is for Reliability, Not Just Rewards

The data shows that traditional banks aren’t losing because they’re “old.” They’re losing because, in the public’s view, their core technology is failing them.

This is the golden opportunity for the new Digital Banks. They have already won the “value” conversation. If they can also prove that their apps are more reliable and more stable than the TradFi giants, they won’t just be a “second account” for high-interest savings—they’ll be in a prime position to steal the entire daily-use market.