KUCHING: The robust growth seen in Malaysia’s Islamic banking
sector has elevated it to the upper echelon of the global Islamic finance
realm, according to Standard Chartered Saadiq Bhd (Saadiq) chief executive
officer (CEO) Wasim Saifi.
“If you look at the progress of
Islamic banking in Malaysia, Islamic banking here is much better positioned in
every sense.
“Malaysia has been by far the
world’s major sukuk market as consistently more than 60 per cent of sukuk
issuances (and in some years even higher than that) happen in Malaysia so it
has become a very important capital market from the Islamic side, probably the
most important one.
“The good thing about the Islamic
capital market here is that not only do you have Malaysian corporates and
government linked companies (GLCs) going for sukuk issuances, you also have
international companies from the Middle East and Far East coming in to tap the
Malaysian ringgit market for sukuk issuance,” he said.
Wasim, who is also Standard
Chartered Bank’s global head of Islamic consumer banking, pointed out
Malaysia’s rare position as one of the only countries with various types of
Islamic banking players operating in the country.
“You’ve got the strong domestic
local Islamic banks (such as Bank Islam and Bank Muamalat) and local
conventional banks with Islamic subsidiaries which are very large and robust
(such as Maybank and CIMB Islamic).
“Then you’ve got the international
banks (such as Saadiq) that are present in this country and the Middle Eastern
Islamic banks and the regional Islamic banks operating in this country.
“So, Islamic banking here has five
different levels of players. When I look around the world, there aren’t too
many places which have so many different types of Islamic players operating in
this industry,” he stated.
Wasim was speaking at a press
conference yesterday following the official opening of Saadiq’s first branch in
Sarawak, located at tHe Spring Mall.
The CEO also opined that Malaysia
enjoyed a very strong Islamic liquidity pool and with government’s focus
remaining so strongly on developing the Islamic banking market, that liquidity
pool was increasing day by day and becoming a very attractive market for people
to come in.
When asked about areas in the
Islamic finance realm that could receive special attention or focus, he said
there were always opportunities for growth and improvement and Saadiq
recognised that from its perspective.
“Malaysia has become such an
important Islamic market for us. As you know, last year we moved our global
consumer Islamic team from Singapore to West Malaysia.
“The idea is to focus on seeing we
can further develop the market. There is still room for further growth. I think
from the product proposition side, the market needs to see further enhancement
happen.
“If you look at conventional versus
Islamic banking, there are still some gaps, especially when you look at areas
like wealth management. So those are areas that we’ll further develop.
He noted that there was still a lot that needed to happen on the
education side of customers. There were people who knew of Islamic banking but
they did not know how the Islamic products were actually structured and how
they worked and therefore how they were complying with requirements.
“Malaysia has done better than other
countries but there is still room for growth in term of people understanding
how Islamic banking truly works. The third area, which is very important, is
continuing further to focus on the talent pool available because Islamic
banking is growing so rapidly.
“We’re looking at 23 to 24 per cent
of total banking assets in the country and the government’s aspiration to take
that to 40 per cent.
“This growth requires qualified
people with Islamic academic training and Islamic work experience to be able to
focus on and fuel that growth.
“That is an area where we need a lot
more focus from an infrastructure perspective to provide Islamic training and
academic preparation so that the whole growth of the Islamic banking industry
can be managed,” he added.
(Borneo Post Online / 22 Feb 2013)
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Alfalah Consulting - Kuala Lumpur: www.alfalahconsulting.com
Consultant-Speaker-Motivator: www.ahmad-sanusi-husain.com
Islamic Investment Malaysia: www.islamic-invest-malaysia.com
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