In 30 seconds
- Setting: a bank branch where counter staff trust a laminated cheat sheet more than anything else in the building, including the policy documents the central bank's RMiT expects banks to keep under review.
- What iKB did: answered a new officer's questions in her staff workspace with citations to the current fee schedule and fixed deposit terms, showing that the sheet's waiver ended in 2021.
- The business point: iKB is an enterprise knowledge AI platform by Astiostech, a Malaysian technology company, that turns approved organisational content into governed answers with citations.
The story
The queue ticket machine at the Taman Melati branch of Bank Seri Cendana, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia had one personality trait. Whatever button you pressed, it printed number 47.
Customers had learnt to live with it. They took their 47, sat down, and watched each other carefully, like contestants in a very slow game show. Encik Rahman, the branch manager, had reported it to head office four times. Head office had replied with a ticket number. It was not 47, which he took personally.
Aina had been a customer service officer for exactly nine days. She had learnt three things. The air conditioning was strongest at counter 3. Auntie Lim came every Tuesday. And when you did not know the answer, you looked at the sheet.
She had also learnt that her first week included the bank's technology and cybersecurity awareness module. The central bank's Risk Management in Technology policy document, RMiT, reissued in September 2026, says banks must give all staff adequate and regular awareness education. Bank Seri Cendana had taken this to heart. The module had forty-two slides, a quiz, and a cartoon padlock called Kunci who gave a thumbs up whenever you chose the correct answer. Aina had passed with full marks. Kunci had been very proud.
The sheet was taped to the side of every counter. One laminated page, slightly yellow, with fees, waivers and rates in a neat table. Nobody had ever told Aina where it came from. It was simply there, like the plastic plant by the door, and everyone trusted it more than the plant.
At 10.15, a 47 approached counter 3. It was Auntie Lim, retired schoolteacher, who brought her own pen because the bank's pens "do not respect the alphabet".
"Good morning, Aina. My statement says I paid a service charge for my passbook replacement. My cat ate the old one. It was not my fault."
Aina looked at the sheet. Passbook replacement: fee waived for customers aged 60 and above. Auntie Lim was seventy-three. Easy.
"No problem, Auntie. I can waive that for you."
"Thank you, dear." Auntie Lim leaned over, uncapped her pen, and drew a firm line through one word on the laminate. "And it is spelt 'waiver', not 'waver'. A waver is what I do at my grandson's bus."
Aina began processing the waiver. The system asked for a reason code. She did not know the reason code. The sheet did not have reason codes.
So she did what Encik Rahman had shown her on her first day. She opened iKB in her staff workspace. The branch had used it for a year, connected to the bank's approved product terms, fee schedules, circulars and operations manuals. Before rollout, the bank's technology risk team had put it through their RMiT checks so thoroughly that the project team started bringing pillows. Encik Rahman described it as "the only colleague who has read every circular and can show you the page".
She typed: What is the reason code for waiving the passbook replacement fee for customers aged 60 and above?
The answer came back with citations to the current fee schedule and the circular that had introduced it. Aina read it twice. Then she read the date on the circular.
The age-based passbook waiver had been withdrawn in 2021. It had been replaced by a waiver for replacements caused by bank error, damage in branch, or a small list of hardship cases. Cats were not on the list.
Aina looked at the laminate. Then at the screen. Then at Auntie Lim, who was watching her with the patience of a woman who had marked forty years of homework.
"Auntie, I am very sorry. I made a mistake. The waiver on this sheet ended in 2021."
"Which sheet?"
Aina pointed. Auntie Lim peered at it, then at the screen Aina turned towards her, then back at the laminate.
"So the sheet is wrong, and the computer is right."
"Yes, Auntie."
"Then why is the sheet on the counter," asked Auntie Lim, very reasonably, "and the computer is under it?"
It was an excellent question. Aina wrote it down.
Encik Rahman came over, read the cited fee schedule, and apologised. The charge stood, but he offered Auntie Lim the free statement printing she was entitled to, which she accepted on the condition that the font be larger.
Aina spent the next hour quietly checking the sheet against iKB, line by line, on her lunch break. Two rates were out of date. One fee no longer existed. The waivers section was a museum.
At 2.40, a different kind of 47 sat down at counter 3.
Pak Hassan was in his eighties, with a cloth bag and a folder of hospital bills. His wife had been admitted the week before. He wanted to break his fixed deposit early.
"How much will I lose?" he asked quietly.
This time Aina did not look at the sheet. She typed the question into iKB, and the answer cited the current fixed deposit terms: the early withdrawal rules, how interest would be calculated, and what Pak Hassan would receive. She opened the cited terms and read the relevant clause to him slowly, in Bahasa Malaysia, twice.
This was the serious part, and Aina felt the weight of it. The terms were clear. They were also not the end of the conversation. The fee schedule iKB had cited that morning listed hardship as a category the branch could consider. Whether Pak Hassan's situation qualified was not for a system to decide, and it was not for a nine-day officer to decide either.
"Pak Hassan, please wait one moment. I would like my manager to look at this with you."
Encik Rahman sat down with them, read the terms and the hardship guidance, listened to Pak Hassan for a long time, and made the call himself. Aina watched him do it and decided that this, more than any reason code, was the job.
When the branch closed, Aina peeled the laminate off counter 3. Underneath, the tape had left a perfect rectangle of 2019 dust. In the bottom corner of the sheet was a smudge that might once have been initials. She could not read them.
"Encik Rahman, who made this?"
He looked at it for a long time. "It has always been there. Since before me."
"Then why do we trust it?"
"Because it has always been there." He sighed. "Which is a terrible reason. RMiT is about technology, not fees, but even our IT policies must be reviewed at least once every three years. This sheet has not been reviewed since 2019. Kunci would not give it a thumbs up."
That evening, her friend Haziq from the contact centre sent her a photo in their chat. Aiyo, is this still correct? Our whole team uses it. It was a photograph of a photograph of the same sheet, so blurry that the fees looked like they were swimming.
Aina stared at it. Then, for the first time, she wondered how many counters, phones and spreadsheets the sheet had travelled to.
So...
Is there a laminated sheet taped to your counters too? Our practical guide shows how bank branches keep frontline staff on current policy, no laminator required. Read the guide: How Bank Branches Keep Staff on Current Policy
What this means for your bank
- iKB is an enterprise knowledge AI platform by Astiostech, a Malaysian technology company, that turns approved organisational content into governed answers with citations.
- Frontline staff can ask questions in plain language inside a staff workspace and open the cited fee schedule, product terms or circular before answering a customer.
- The central bank's Risk Management in Technology (RMiT) policy document, issued on 25 September 2026, requires financial institutions to review IT-related frameworks, policies and guidelines at least once every three years (paragraph 8.2(d)) and to provide adequate and regular technology and cybersecurity awareness education for all staff (paragraph 15.1). Source: RMiT policy document
- Role-based access control, audit trails and activity logging in iKB can support a bank's own technology risk controls. Whether those controls meet RMiT is for each bank to assess.
- iKB supports staff with the current approved content. Discretionary decisions, such as hardship cases, remain with authorised staff.
FAQ
What is iKB? iKB is an enterprise knowledge AI platform by Astiostech, a Malaysian technology company, that turns approved organisational content into governed answers with citations.
Can branch staff use iKB without leaving their usual tools? iKB is delivered through workspaces, web chat, collaboration channels, messaging and APIs.
Does iKB show where its answers come from? Yes. iKB provides knowledge retrieval with citations, so staff can open the source document behind each answer.
Does using iKB make a bank RMiT compliant? No single product makes a bank compliant. iKB provides role-based access control, audit trails, activity logging and exports, which a bank can assess as part of its own technology risk management under the central bank's RMiT policy document.
Does iKB make decisions about customers? No. iKB helps staff find and check approved policy. Decisions about customers remain with authorised staff.
Where can I learn more? Visit us or contact the Astiostech team.
Disclaimer
This is a work of fiction. Bank Seri Cendana, its branches, products, fees, training materials and all characters are invented and do not depict any real bank, customer or policy. References to the RMiT policy document describe a real, published document; the events around it are imaginary. iKB is a real product by Astiostech.
Coming up in Part 2
In the bank's contact centre, agents have been answering card dispute questions from a photo pinned in their group chat. The photo has been forwarded so many times the numbers are swimming. Team lead Melissa Tan has a sticker war to referee and a very serious call coming in. Companion article: How Bank Branches Keep Staff on Current Policy.