Maybank Islamic Sees More Revenue From Singapore Business

By Massita Ahmad SINGAPORE, April 6 (Bernama) -- Maybank Islamic Bhd is confident that its Islamic banking business in Singapore will contribute further to revenue going forward. Group Head, Islamic Banking and Chief Executive Officer Muzaffar Hisham said this follows the ongoing support from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in promoting the Islamic banking sphere. "We are very pleased with the support," he said when met by Bernama and Mediacorp, on the sidelines of the two-day Islamic Banking & Investment Asia/Middle East Congress 2016, here. It was reported that Singapore's central bank will continue to strengthen the Islamic finance regime and capabilities amid growing cross-border Islamic finance. The news report said that since MAS established its sukuk facility in 2009, there had been eight sukuk issuances totalling S$600 million (S$1 = RM2.89). Muzaffar said in a short span of less than three years here, the Islamic banking business in Singapore had contributed about 5.0 per cent to its revenue. "We not only hope to maintain, but look to it contributing more than 5.0 per cent. "I believed Singapore is a centre of a cross-border transactions, particularly for non-domestic currencies such as the US dollar, British pound sterling and the Japanese yen. I am confident that Singapore is not only a key financial centre, but also a country promoting Islamic banking through MAS," he added. On Tuesday, Maybank and Singapore-based RB Capital inked a S$260 million Islamic financing deal, one of the biggest in Singapore. The landmark event involved the 442-room mid-tier Holiday Inn Express Singapore Clarke Quay as the underlying security. Hospitality-related assets are not typical in Islamic financing, which makes this the first undertaken in a secular country. Maybank Group's Islamic banking business in 2015 surged 20.4 per cent in total income compared to the previous year. Maybank Islamic maintained its position as the top Islamic bank in Malaysia with a 28 per cent market share of Islamic assets in the country. It ranked fourth in the Global Sukuk League Table for financial year 2015 with a market share of 8.6 per cent from 106 issues totalling US$2.96 billion (US$1 = RM3.92). For the financial year ended Dec 31, 2015, Maybank Islamic's total assets exceeded US$36 billion. --BERNAMA