Maybank Islamic assets to gow 40pc

JAKARTA: Maybank Islamic Bhd, Asia-Pacific's largest syariah lender, sees an increase in its contribution to the group‘s profit to 20 per cent in the next three years from the current 16 per cent, said President and Chief Executive Officer of Malayan Banking Bhd (Maybank) Datuk Seri Abdul Wahid Omar.

For its nine months financial period ended March 31, 2011, Maybank Islamic recorded a pre-tax profit of RM631.9 million.

Abdul Wahid said Maybank Islamic's total assets was also expected to see a growth of between 30 per cent and 40 per cent in the next three years. As at March 31, this year, Maybank Islamic 's total assets stood at about RM58 billion.

He added that a target has been set where Maybank Islamic is expected to contribute one third of the total banking activities domestically.

"We always wanted Maybank Islamic to grow so that the proportion of business that comes under Maybank Islamic will grow under the Maybank group. We are actually progressing to achieve the target. Now, it is at 27 per cent. It is very much on target," he said in an interview with Bernama.

"Within Malaysia, we are doing well, both in retail and banking services. Our Islamic hire purchase is doing well, so are the wholesale side and Islamic capital market."

He said Maybank Islamic was also in the lead in the country for the first half of this year, topping others in terms of the size of issues.

As at March 31, Islamic banking financing and advances constituted 27.8 per cent of total domestic financing and advances in Malaysia.

As the next big market for Islamic banking would be Indonesia, Abdul Wahid expects a good growth in Maybank’s banking businesses in the republic. The group has PT Bank Internasional Indonesia and its PT Bank Maybank Indocorp has been
converted into PT Bank Maybank Syariah Indonesia.

"Given the fact that Indonesia is the largest economy in South East Asia, we have very high expectations of the growth potential in Indonesia," he said.

"We are also looking at the possibility of collaboration in terms of products in Islamic finance. There are always opportunities of collaboration. I think it’s a very broad area," he said.

Abdul Wahid also said that Maybank Islamic would be offering Islamic stockbroking services through its stockbroking firm in Singapore, Kim Eng Holdings Ltd.

"We want to start as soon as possible. It needs a number of engagements. We are waiting for that," he added.--Bernama