For cross-border transactions, supply-side financing and capital markets, HSBC Amanah, led by chief executive Raja Amir Shah Raja Azwa, was the international Islamic bank to beat this year.
From its headquarters in Malaysia, the bank expanded its already pivotal role last year in Shariah-compliant financing; and, in doing so, boosted Kuala Lumpur’s status as a key Islamic finance hub.
In addition to its financing strength, HSBC Amanah also offers a strong suite of Shariah-compliant hedging instruments, including foreign-exchange options and forwards, profit-rate swaps and cross-currency swaps. It has an Islamic FX overlay platform that enables fund managers to automate hedging programmes.
One factor in the bank’s success has been its adherence to the highest ethical standards. Since 2017, HSBC Amanah has been a cornerstone adopter of the value-based intermediation (VBI) framework championed by the country’s central monetary authority, Bank Negara Malaysia.
HSBC Amanah was the first global Islamic bank to publish a blueprint aligned to VBI. It has helped to build the methodology for classifying financial assets and the ways in which they can be financed cross-border.
HSBC itself is undergoing a top-down green transformation. It is embedding sustainability considerations into 51% of its assets in alignment with the triple bottom line of people, planet and prosperity.
Last year, HSBC Amanah was involved in high-level working groups led by the Islamic Finance Council, the London Stock Exchange and Global Ethical Finance Initiative to determine the way forward for green and sustainable sukuk issuance.
The bank is also a party to the Joint Committee on Climate Change. Since 2020, HSBC Amanah has chaired the framework’s effort to engage and train Islamic banking participants on sustainability issues – the only east Asian bank to do so.
In addition to its financing strength, HSBC Amanah also offers an unrivalled suite of Shariah-compliant hedging instruments
One notable recent cross-border transaction was the £122 million financing to a government-linked investment company to complete the second phase of the landmark Battersea Power Station project in London in March 2022. This development is a mix of residential and commercial properties.
In December 2022, the bank completed a drawdown for a Middle Eastern supranational institution totalling €25 million. What the transaction lacked in scale, it made up for in showcasing the strength of HSBC Amanah’s capabilities to expand its balance sheet internationally.
HSBC Amanah is also an Islamic wealth management pioneer. It has built one of the biggest and most competitive portfolios of products for high net-worth individuals and families with short-, medium- and long-term investment horizons.
