Sooasana is the advisory practice of Zul Kassim — twenty years across Citi, CIMB, BSN, AirAsia Big, and XOX. Founder of Glaze Empire and the operating mind behind Hijrah.
I've spent twenty years inside cards, payments, loyalty and Islamic finance — at Citi, CIMB, BSN, AirAsia Big, and now XOX, where I lead the payment business. Along the way I founded Glaze Empire, the operating company behind Hijrah— Malaysia's first certified digital Shariah financing platform.
Sooasana is the advisory practice through which I take on outside mandates. The work is shaped by one belief: most teams don't have an idea problem — they have a shipping problem. What they need isn't another deck. They need someone who has sat in their seat, talked to their regulator, and shipped the product on their roadmap.
Each engagement is shaped to the mandate. Below is what we've built repeatedly — and what we can build again, with you.
Built Malaysia's first certified digital Shariah financing platform. End-to-end Tawarruq workflow, Shariah Advisory Council certification, custom scoring engine, multi-corporate onboarding.
Transformed the XOX payment business into a profitable subsidiary. Led e-Money licensing with Bank Negara Malaysia, launched gateway and merchant acquiring, drove cost-per-transaction down by migrating internal flows onto XOX rails.
Multi-dimensional credit scoring desktop app used to power Hijrah approvals. Rule-based decisioning, automated verification, configurable risk segmentation — built to be deployed inside regulated environments.
Led co-brand partnership, proposition, and acquisition for Citi's premium travel card. Part of a 7-year run at Citibank Malaysia that launched four card products across Thailand and Malaysia, securing 100,000+ customers in six months.
360° strategic rebrand and marketing campaign for Bank Simpanan Nasional's cards business. Managed RM 21M budget, exceeded card spend target by 120%, cut acquisition cost by 60%.
First-ever free airport transfer proposition for Citibank cardmembers in Malaysia. Partnership negotiation, mobile-led activation, and a programme that lifted card usage 30% through digital engagement.
ALMANAC — Anti-Money Laundering Management, Navigation & Audit Control — is the compliance self-assessment tool we built for fintech and digital-bank teams. Answer ~60 questions covering AML policy, CDD, transaction monitoring, STR reporting and record-keeping. Receive a risk-rated PDF report with prioritized gaps.
Cards, payments, loyalty, e-money, Shariah financing — across Citi, CIMB, BSN, AirAsia Big, XOX, and the operating company behind Hijrah. The advice you'll get is the advice we followed ourselves.
Transformed the payment business into a profitable subsidiary. Launched e-money, payment gateway, and merchant acquiring. Led BNM engagement.
B2B digital transactions and Shariah-compliant financing platforms — the operating company behind Hijrah and Zeta.
Retail & Community Banking. Deposits, agent banking, transaction banking, and remittance — exceeded targets across all units.
120% of card spend target. Managed RM 21M budget. Cut acquisition cost by 60% with the Find Your Happy rebrand.
Lifted points issuance 15% via partner-funded campaigns. Built journey-led customer segmentation.
Designed the Voice-of-Customer dashboard. CSAT lifted +5 points for preferred banking segment.
Seven-year run in cards. Launched four card products across TH/MY — 100,000+ customers acquired in six months. PremierMiles co-brand. First-ever free airport transfer for cardmembers.
“I had the opportunity to work with Zulfi during his stint with Citibank, Thailand where he was responsible for product development and managing activation programs for our consumer lending business. Zulfi is an absolute delight to work with. He is a person who thinks laterally, creates vision, develops strategy and has great execution skills to back it up. He was responsible for launching various first to market products and usage campaigns which solidified Citibank's leadership positioning in the market place. I would welcome a chance to work with him again.”
“Zul was an extremely capable and responsible product manager. He was very competent and singlehandedly launched the Citibank Shell cobrand managing a large partner as well as internal stakeholders. He is very competent from a financial perspective and was responsible for getting the financials approved and ensured that the value proposition was profitable for both parties. He also managed the product and sale launch and successfully launched a product that grew to over 100K in under 12 months.”
“Zul is a creative, “out-side the box” and detailed oriented product manager. He is a great asset to Citi and will always be, to any organisation.”
“Zulkifli is a dedicated and independent mid-level personnel who requires minimal (to none) supervision in all of the projects/cases/assignments/taskforces that was handed to him by the top management. He has a clear train of thoughts and able to articulate his thoughts well, with an objective mindset and strong business acumen. He is able to think outside of the box and effective at providing solutions.”
Four things compound across every engagement.
Most consultants describe the journey. We've made it — three times, in different markets, under different regulators.
BNM, MAS, SC, AAOIFI — we don't lookup the framework. We've negotiated through it.
Every deck we produce has a P&L behind it. No vision without arithmetic.
Islamic finance isn't a translation layer. It's the architecture — and we build it that way from day one.
Scroll down — the phases scroll across. No surprises, ever.
A short, no-cost conversation. We hear the mandate, the constraints, and the politics. We decide together if we're a fit.
We embed for two to four weeks. Data, people, regulators, customers. You leave with a written brief that explains the situation.
We propose a path. P&L attached, regulatory pathway attached, build sequence attached. You decide what to commit to.
We sit inside the build — alongside your team, vendors, and regulator. Until it ships, and until it scales.
Tell me where you are, where you'd like to be, and what's in the way. If we're a fit, I'll say so. If we're not, I'll tell you who is.