BNM THE BEST PROMOTER OF ISLAMIC FINANCE

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 13 (Bernama) -- Bank Negara Malaysia has won the Islamic
Finance news Award for being the Best Central Bank in Promoting Islamic Finance
in 2008.

Through a poll conducted by the Islamic Finance news publication in December
last year, CIMB Islamic Bank also took the honour as Malaysia's Best Islamic
Bank, while its chief executive officer, Badlisyah Abdul Ghani won the Best
Individual Islamic Banker award.

"The 2008 poll received a record 2,491 votes, a 66 percent increase from
2007. This is not including the 979 votes that we eliminated following due
diligence process," the managing director and publisher of Islamic Finance news,
Andrew Morgan said.

He said a further 2,627 voters were cast for the Best Individual Islamic
Banker category, making a total of 5,118 votes.

On the Deals of the Year Awards, he said this year also saw a record with a
total of 81 deals being submitted.

Morgan said a total of 97 financial institutions were involved in these 27
deals, a jump of 14 percent from the previous year.

Amongst the winners for the Deals of the Year awards were AirAsia Bhd which
took the award for Cross Border Deal and Ijarah Deal of the Year, Projek
Lintasan Shah Alam (Malaysia Deal of the Year) and WCT Engineering (Most
Innovative Deal of the Year).
-- BERNAMA