Maybank

Maybank Islamic Berhad (Maybank Islamic) has clinched the 2009 KLIFF (Kuala Lumpur Islamic Finance Forum) Islamic Finance Awards for Most Outstanding Islamic Bank Award.

This is the second year Maybank Islamic has received an award from KLIFF. In 2008, it won the Most Outstanding Islamic Retail Banking Award.

The KLIFF Awards are given to honour, recognise and acknowledge the significant efforts and contributions by individuals and institutions in developing the Islamic finance industry. Both foreign and local Islamic financing institutions are polled for the various categories of the Awards.

Maybank President & CEO, Dato' Sri Abdul Wahid Omar received the award from Tan Sri Nor Mohamed Yakcop, Minister in the Prime Minister's Department at an award presentation ceremony in conjunction with the recent 6th KLIFF Conference.

"Each year the benchmark of excellence for KLIFF's Awards continues to be raised in selecting the winners. We are honoured with this Award and it will spur us to work even harder to ensure our continued leadership in Islamic banking in Malaysia and the region," said Dato' Sri Abdul Wahid Omar.

Dato' Sri Abdul Wahid Omar also said that Maybank Islamic will continue to leverage on the Group's domestic and international network to expand the range of Islamic financial products and services to markets where the Group has presence. "In the coming year, Indonesia will be our key market for us to establish our Islamic banking services particularly in the consumer as well as investment banking segment," he said.

Maybank began offering Islamic banking services through the Islamic window concept in 1993. In 2008, Maybank Islamic became a full-fledged Islamic banking subsidiary of Maybank. Today, Maybank Islamic is the largest Islamic financial services provider in the country with total Shariah-compliant assets of over RM35 billion. It commands the largest market share in Islamic financing and deposits of more than 23% each and also leads in a number of key portfolios including cashline-i (55%), trade finance-i (35%), Islamic hire purchase (30%), home financing-i (25%), savings-i (27%), current account-i (24%) and term deposit-i (19%).

Maybank Islamic is also regarded in the industry as the leading Islamic bank in the Asia-Pacific region and also one of the top 15* Islamic financial institutions in the world. (Source: The Asian Banker, Issue 91, 2009)