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Best Islamic bank in Asia
Best Islamic bank in Malaysia
Malaysia’s CIMB has held a leadership position in Islamic finance in Asia
for many years and is not about to relinquish it despite growing strength and sophistication among such rivals as Maybank.
CIMB Islamic used to be known just for its investment banking capabilities, but it is an increasingly powerful consumer force too, serving 8 million customers in Malaysia and with a growing presence elsewhere in Asean, chiefly Indonesia. It claims to offer the most Islamic consumer products in Malaysia and is certainly the most technologically driven bank there, targeting the increasing digital awareness of Malaysian customers with products such as the plug ‘n’ play chip-based mobile POS solution, the ‘bank in a briefcase’ approval process, as well as a paperless system for the sale and approval of cards and personal loans.
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| Badlisyah Abdul Ghani, CEO, CIMB |
Still, it’s the deals that make CIMB stand out, on a global as much as a local stage. During Euromoney’s award period it was on 24.1% of all Malaysian ringgit sukuk issuance and handled 9.4% of all global sukuk, handling 141 global deals, more than anyone else worldwide. The capital markets strength is supplemented by a securitization and structured finance team, and one of the strongest project finance operations in the region. Consequently, one finds CIMB on the biggest Islamic deals in the region as a matter of routine. In corporate banking, one would highlight the M$8 billion ($2.43 billion) Islamic syndicated revolving credit facility to finance Malaysia’s mass rapid transit project, part of which is our project finance deal of the year; in Islamic equity capital markets, one could pick Air Asia X’s M$1.1 billion IPO, or the M$2.4 billion offering from UMW Oil & Gas, or another from Sona Petroleum; in debt, one could opt for the M$1.16 billion sukuk programme for Kimanis Power, or the M$3 billion programme for Telekom Malaysia, or the S$600 million exchangeable for Khazanah, also highlighted in our deals section below; and for sheer scale, nothing compares to the M$40 billion Islamic MTN programme for Cagamas.
CIMB is known for its innovation in Islamic structured products too, although the names border on the intimidating, from the Bearish Euro NID-i to the CIMB Islamic Flippable Range Accrual Structural Product-i.
Badlisyah Abdul Ghani and his team have tried to do all this within the right framework; theirs was the first Islamic bank in Malaysia (at least among the offshoots of the commercial banks) to establish a board and appoint an independent Shariah committee, or to undertake a Shariah audit. As ever, these practices in Malaysia will stand it in good stead as it continues to grow in Asean and the Middle East.
