PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s banking industry is preparing for a significant shift in regulatory reporting as Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM) advances Project STREAM (Statistical Reporting Modernisation).
As outlined in BNM’s bulletin for the second quarter of 2026, the initiative will move reporting entities away from manual, template-based reporting towards automated, API-enabled submissions of granular, machine-readable data.
With data collection for the initial phase one covering deposits, payments and derivatives, banks have a finite window to prepare their systems and processes to meet BNM’s mandate. BNM Project STREAM has a five-year timeline.
Project STREAM is guided by three principles – collect once, use many times; automate collection; and future-proof reporting.
The initiative responds to challenges BNM identified under the current framework, namely duplicate reporting of similar data across multiple datasets, significant manual effort in compiling submissions through web-based interfaces and Excel templates, and aggregated, periodic reporting that limits access to more timely and granular information.
The scale of the transition is already driving demand across Malaysia’s banking sector.
Finexus is currently engaged on Project STREAM with 12 banking groups, representing 23 of Malaysia’s 58 licensed banking institutions, or about 40% of the sector. A further three banking groups are formally evaluating its AIRStream platform through ongoing tender processes.
According to BNM, the standardised data models and API-driven automation will reduce or eliminate manual reporting, while higher-quality submissions will enable faster and more granular open data, benefiting the public as well as banks themselves through better peer benchmarking and analytics.
BNM has also noted that reporting entities stand to gain the most by applying these principles across their internal systems, not only at the point of submission, supporting a more data-driven, AI-ready financial sector and initiatives such as Open Finance.
Finexus’ AIRStream, Automated Intelligence Reporting for STREAM, is designed to reduce that transition burden without requiring banks to rebuild their existing technology environments.
AIRStream integrates with existing bank platforms and automates the transformation, validation and reconciliation of the granular data required for regulatory submission. The platform also reconciles information against banks’ General Ledgers and existing BNM reporting systems, helping identify discrepancies before submission while reducing manual intervention.
For banks weighing how to meet Project STREAM requirements without adding another major technology programme, Finexus estimates that AIRStream could reduce total implementation and operating costs by around 20% over five years, while cutting the internal manpower required by more than half compared with building and running the capability in-house.
Its configuration-led design also means later STREAM phases can be absorbed with less need to rework core systems as requirements expand.
These benefits are already being demonstrated in live production.
AIRStream is deployed at one Malaysian digital bank, which has been submitting STREAM data since November 2025.
In the first quarter of 2026, the platform processed around 565 million granular records, averaging more than six million a day, with each daily cycle of transformation, validation, reconciliation and submission completed in under three hours.
Finexus Group founder, managing director and CEO Clement Loh said, “Project STREAM is an important step in strengthening Malaysia’s financial infrastructure for the future. AIRStream reflects our belief that Malaysian technology can do more than respond to regulatory change, giving banks a more resilient path forward while demonstrating that homegrown innovation can support systems of national importance.”
BNM has described Project STREAM as a shared journey that can only succeed through close collaboration with the financial industry. AIRStream demonstrates how homegrown technology can support that journey, helping banks protect existing investments and reduce operational disruption as the sector moves towards a more data-driven and innovative financial ecosystem.
AIRStream is built on over 26 years of Finexus’ regulatory reporting experience, with solutions supporting more than 30 banks.
As Project STREAM will be implemented gradually, beginning with deposits, payments and derivatives before extending to domains such as balance of payments and credit, as well as compliance reporting, AIRStream’s architecture is designed to adapt as requirements evolve across phases, without repeatedly reworking banks’ core systems.
