Zafrul Aziz: Planned transformation

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Fifty years of Asia The profiles: 23 of the biggest names in Asia Laura Cha Wei Sun Christianson Piyush Gupta Uday Kotak Reuben Lai Boon Chye Loh Agus Martowardojo Raghuram Rajan Jahja Setiaatmadja Weijian Shan Alan Smith Teh Hong Piow Tian Huiyu Sun Yu Nestor Tan Wee Ee Cheong Kartika Wirjoatmodjo Peter Wong Daniel Wu Wu Wei Joseph Yam Zeti Akhtar Aziz

When Zafrul Aziz became chief executive of CIMB in 2014 he embarked upon a transformation plan called T18, or Target 2018. Although CIMB was at the time the fourth or fifth largest bank in southeast Asia, it was not among the leaders in terms of profitability, return on equity, cost-to-income ratio or capital.

“We were down there because we were in expansionary mode,” Zafrul says.