Winner: CIMB Islamic
Malaysian bank CIMB Islamic goes from strength to strength. Last year it introduced retail banking products to complement its already impressive wholesale business. By marrying its investment banking expertise with its consumer banking distribution capabilities, CIMB brought several new products to the market in 2008, such as the EcoSave-i, a paperless environment-friendly account with no passbook; an Islamic credit card where no underlying assets are needed but is rather based on ujrah (services fee); and Max Invest Save, a flexible retirement plan. Customers can invest any amount at any time.
CIMB Islamic has continued to grow in other areas. Its treasury signed a commodity murabaha deposit agreement in Hong Kong through its office in the city, an Islamic inter-bank money market liquidity management product. In asset management, the bank launched its commodities structured funds 1 and 2.
In investment banking, CIMB retains its number one position in the domestic sukuk market. Its standout transaction was the Paka Capital $550 million exchangeable sukuk issue by state investment firm Khazanah. It was the third exchangeable sukuk that Khazanah has issued; innovative features of the structure include share borrowing and lending and an avenue for hedging the equity option.
It was also the first exchangeable sukuk to use listed shares in Hong Kong of a Chinese company as the exchange property and underlying assets. The deal was more than 10 times oversubscribed.
Try as they might no other Asian bank matched CIMB’s performance last year. Its management will be striving hard to ensure that it maintains its dominance in the region this year too.
